BenRiach | Sherry Wood | 12 years old | 46 % | Mariage of Oloroso and PX Butts | sample due /u/tja_so | NCF & NCA
Situation: I was feeling neither peat nor bourbon tonight, so I randomly grabbed a sample and stuck with the first non peated one I got…I love the peated BenRiachs I had before, this is the first unpeated one
Nose: Intense and deep, honey sweet, sugary PX shines through, the Oloroso casks add a very nice nutty-ness to it, marzipan, chocolate, raisins and some woody oak – nice!
Taste: Nice raisin-y entry, red fruits, strawberries, sweet grapes, quite woody, sweet PX, dark fruits, marzipan and some herbal notes
Finish: Salty, vanilla, dark chocolate, pine nuts, a bit tannin oak, a wee bit soapy, quite long and drying at the end
Conclusion: I really liked the nose, the taste did not completely live up to that but it’s not too bad, maybe a few more points of abv would do the trick, a nice daily drinker, not as intense as the Aberlour 12 NCF for example but still a pretty solid sherry malt
Update: I recently had this as a mystery and gave it an 85 then!
