The Benriach distillery is located near Elgin in the 'Lossie' area of
Speyside, just inbetween Linkwood and Longmorn. It was built in
the year 1898 by John Duff, who had constructed the Longmorn
distillery a year earlier. Unfortunately, financial problems forced
him to sell both distilleries soon afterwards - surely a tragic tale.

Benriach was purchased by the Longmorn Distillery Co Ltd. who
then decided to close it again in 1900. After remaining silent for
over half a century, Benriach was eventually rebuilt by new owner
The Glenlivet Distilleries Ltd. in 1965 and sold to Seagram in 1977.
Seagram installed a second set of stills (wash & spirit) in 1985.

Seagram didn't introduce their own official bottling until 1994.
Chivas bought Benriach in 2001, but closed the distillery again in 2002, almost immediately after they acquired it, just like Longmorn Distillers had done more than a century earlier. It would almost seem like Benriach ('speckled mountain') doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in its owners...

Benriach 10yo (43%, OB, Bottled +/- 1995, 70cl)
Nose: Somewhat grainy and slightly oily. Very soft, but it slowly grows more interesting.
A pleasant nutty, flowery sweetness. Enjoyable, but not particulary interesting, I'd say...
Taste: Rather soft with a powerful afterglow. A real summer-malt - nice but dim.
Score: 71 points - and it comes in one of the plainest bottles I've seen...

Benriach 10yo (43%, OB, Bottled +/- 2000, 100cl)
Nose: Flat and oily. Faint sweetness. Not very expressive at first I must say.
It grows creamier and nuttier over time but in the end it remains rather shallow.
Taste: Very restrained at first. Then it becomes sweeter. Yes, that's more like it.
It grows a little sour and bitter in the centre. Not a lot of excitement here.
A very short finish - one could almost describe it as a 'photo-finish'...
Score: 70 points - close to the 'house style': Grainy, slightly oily, maybe flowery?

Benriach 10yo 1994/2005 (46%, Signatory Vintage Unchillfiltered, C#2026, 402 Bottles)
Nose: Peat - and lots of it. Sweet as well with lots of organics to fill out the overall profile.
I heard that Seagram's did some peated batches, but I never imagined they would be this good.
Taste: Dry and, again, peaty. A very 'serious' profile - but I love it! I hope they have more casks.
Score: 84 points - making it my favourite young expression of Benriach so far. Hot stuff...

Benriach 12yo 1986/1998 (43%, Signatory Vintage, Casks #4804 & 4805, 70cl)
Nose: Peculiar start. A lot of development; it grows notably weeter with time.
It became grainier with notably more chloride after I added a splash of water.
Taste: Malty. Sweetish wint a hint of pine. Plywood? Sticky. Not entirely balanced.
Toffee smotthness after adding some water. Bitterish finish. Below average.
Score: 73 points - just a smidgen better than the young OB's, I'd say.

Benriach 12yo 1969 (40%, G&M Connoisseurs Choice)
Nose: Malty and creamy, growing spicier. Delicate, but not weak or 'middle-of-the-road'.
Quite expressive, and further proof that the 'CC' range wasn't always synonymous with 'bland'.
Gooseberries. Cardamom? Fennel? Nothing really stands out, but it grows ever more spicy.
Amazing development over time - no big shifts in character, but ever changing nuances.
Taste: A tad bitter at first. Malty. Fairly flat and dry, decisively pulling it from the upper 80's.
The faint bitterness is always present - a bit like grape skins or seeds. Not really my style.
Score: 82 points - the nose is spectacular, but it's hardly anything special on the palate.
It might have done better at a higher proof, giving the palate some more 'substance'.

Benriach 34yo 1968/2003 (49.8%, Hart Brothers)
Nose: Malty and creamy just like the 12yo 1969, but with more fruity notes. Slightly dusty.
More spices after a minute - and then farmy organics as well, growing stronger. Intense.
Maybe a faint hint of smoke and even something medicinal? Dentist? Very, very interesting.
Taste: It starts out sweeter than the 12yo, but the bitter elements soon become dominant.
It's a little fruitier than the 12yo on the palate too. After a while I got a hint of liquorice.
A tad watery and not all that special. In fact it's downright disappointing after the nose.
Score: 84 points - once again, the palate pulls it down from the upper 80's. Too bad.
A magnificent nose, though. Another malt much more suitable for nosing than for tasting.

The Benriach 34yo (50.4%, Peerless, Cask #2593) must have been a 'sister cask' of the last one.
Nose: Sweet, creamy and malty. None of these bottlings has the 'oily' character of the 10yo OB.
Opens up to the most fragrant and expressive nose of the three. Here I got some liquorice.
Unfortunately, where the others opened up with time, this showed little further development.
Taste: Flatter than the other two. It feels a little uneven. No fun at all - a real spoiler here.
The palate of the other two was just less impressive than the nose. Here it's sub-standard.
Score: 77 points - I really can't classify this as a 'recommendable' malt.
Just a tad above average, which is disappointing after 34 years.
 

Check out my Track Record for a complete and up-to-date overview of all 'siplings' I've tried.
 
 
 

Fortunately, Benriach was reopened again in 2004 by yet another new owner.
Scotsman Billy Walker (a former operations manager with Burn Stewart) and two South African partners (Geoff Bell and Wayne Kieswetter) purchased Benriach in 2004. I've been informed that the new owners have resumed production again and launched 12, 16 and 20 year old bottlings of Benriach in the same year. If Benriach manages to stay alive this time it will be one of the few remaining distilleries in Scotland with its own (working) floor maltings. When I write this Benriach doesn't have a visitor centre but these floor maltings could be an interesting feature.

Although Benriach has an maximum production capacity of 2,400,000 litres of pure alcohol per year only a third of this capacity was used around 2005. Well, that means that they have a lot of potential for growth without having to invest in extra equipment in the near future.

Trivia about Benriach: When Benriach was owned by Seagram the distillery also
produced some batches of more peated malt whisky. In 2004 a 'Curiositas' OB was released,
containing some of this peated whisky. I haven't tried that version myself yet, but a 10yo
1994/2005 bottling from Signatory I tried at PLOWED HQ during Feis Ile 2005 was excellent.
In fact, I think it was actually superior to some independent Islay bottlings of a similar age.
Needless to say, I will be keeping my eyes open for new peated Benriachs in the future.

I mentioned John Duff, founder of Longmorn and Benriach (a.k.a. Longmorn #2).
He was one of many whisky entrepreneurs to suffer from 'The Pattison whisky Crisis.
During the late 19th century there was a massive whisky boom and during the 1890's no
less than 33 new distilleries (21 in Speyside alone) were opened to meet growing demand.
It all came crashing down in 1899 when major players Pattison's Ltd. from Leith went into
liquidation. Their bankrupcy caused the bubble to burst and quickly infected the indistry.