Nose: Zesty, fruity, deep orange, blood orange, red grapefruit, heather honey, malty cereal barley, a touch of smoke, milky vanilla, ginger, milk chocolate, sherry trifle, a little floral too.

Our Service is an online platform which provides Members with information (e.g. bottle facts, market-indices, market values and prices) on (mostly) whisky and allows Members to add information to the platform. We do not sell, nor does the Service provide any option to buy, any alcoholic products. Nose: Speyside meets Campbeltown – toffee apples, orange peels, honey and beeswax vs. gentle but unclean ashy smoke, surface cleaner and used oil. More overtly sherried than the 10 year old, this delivers stewed red berries, dusty wood cellars as well as some slightly tropicalness from pineapple. Oatmeal, tanned leather, lemon drop sweets and bitter chocolate all provide additional nuances. With Water: A few drops of water highlight brighter fruit notes on the nose, and add peanut butter to the palate. The water also balances out the sherry and the tannic notes better.We may, but are not under any obligation, to release new functionalities and tools or other features for the Service every now and then. Any new functionalities, tools and features shall be part of and governed by the Terms from the moment they are launched and/or available. Further, we reserve the right to modify, change, discontinue the Service, add or remove features, update the Service, change its appearance, temporarily and permanently, at any time, in whole or any part thereof. As they state on their label, Benromach is made for “genuine character”. So, expect some rough edges, as Benromach is not one of those generic and all-too-many smooth and gentle crowd-pleasers.

Compared to the 10, there’s more sherry present. Your typical notes of leather, a buffed red apple, red berries and a sappiness. Again, vanilla, some sense of the wood as well, ginger, fudge and roast beef. Some chocolate as well, honey, plums, raisins and walnuts, but also a less expressive nose compared to the 10 and more wood-focused. Palate: A bit hot. Oaky and buttery, with resinous dried fruit. There’s a lot of depth to explore here, and I wasn’t able do it justice with a single pour. The whisky remains dirty and earthy on the palate and plays on the same themes as the nose. The finish continues these themes but is rather short. The bonfire smoke lingers on for a while.

What they say

This 15 yo bridges the gap nicely between the standard 10 yo and its big badass sister that is the 100 proof/cask strength. It has the boldness and richness from the 10 yo cask strength, yet due to the lower ABV it’s accessible enough for those who might find the 57% ABV beast to be a bit much. Benromach and owners Gordon & Macphail used to have, “It’s the wood that makes the whisky” as their baseline until a few years ago and and while, from today’s point of view, that might seem a tad simplistic, this 2016 expression is living proof of the company putting that theory into practice. Without prejudice to the section Liability below, the Service may be temporarily unavailable during maintenance, updates, etc. We shall make reasonable efforts to inform you of any unavailability due to maintenance or updates. I was able to taste the lineup at a tasting event in Redwood City, CA, along with the Peat Smoke, Organic NAS, and Imperial Proof 10-year. The Whisky of the Year tasting is the only official global blind whisky tasting undertaken by members of the public and, for the first time this year, the six shortlisted whiskies were nominated by global customers of The Whisky Exchange, with more than 1,200 putting forward their favourites. Benromach’s entry-level 10 year-old bottling is aged in a combination of 80% ex-bourbon and 20% ex-sherry casks (all first-fill), and then married for 1 additional year in first-fill European oak oloroso sherry casks. The 15 year, however, continues that final aging for an additional 5 years (for a total of 6 years) in oloroso. This extra aging gives the whisky a mahogany color and a deep, resinous sherry character. The sherry barrels are sourced from Bodegas Williams & Humbert in Jerez. Bourbon barrels come from Heaven Hill and Jim Beam. For the 10-year and 15-year, Benromach uses malt peated to a delicate 12 – 14 ppm using Highland peat. This is to emulate the style of “traditional” Speyside whiskies, which were routinely malted using peat fires before the advent of new heating technologies (and new tastes in lighter-style whiskies for blending). The final whisky is bottled at 43% ABV with no added color.

This cookie is set by Rubicon Project to control synchronization of user identification and exchange of user data between various ad services. The Service has been prepared by us solely for information purposes to Members and the Service is based on information we consider reliable and we obtain the contents of the Service from a number of different third party sources (including Contributions), but we do not endorse, support, represent, warrant or guarantee the completeness, truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of the Services and any information therein.Whiskybase B.V. (“Whiskybase”, “we” or “us”, company details below) offers a whisky enthusiasts online platform that provides its members access to the most comprehensive, transparent and trusted resource of whisky bottles and allows and stimulates its members to contribute information about whisky bottles to the platform (“Service”). Thanks to Benromach for the festive sample and timely revisit to this expression. My tasting notes: Prices are listed below and the range is widely distributed. Preferably, we should support our local dealers and have a wee chat with them while we’re there as they might have further bottles to explore.

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Recommendations

A pleasant weighty texture and a more noticeable degree of smokiness that carries through into the finish. Highland Toffee, some bitterness from the wood but not forceful. Sawdust and white chocolate on the finish. Green peppercorns, tarragon come midway along with cask char. Finish: Medium-long. Tannic and a bit nutty, with fading slight bitterness. Surprisingly dry and timid, considering the depth on the palate. If any provision of these Terms is held invalid, the remainder of the Terms shall continue in full force and effect. Kate – Like smelling spring in the morning. The flowers are starting to bud. The mineral smell after a good rain. That is what the Benromach 15 reminds me of. Regardless of whether the Service offers the functionality to contribute, you are solely responsible and liable for any content and information that you create, upload, post, publish, link to, duplicate, transmit, record, display or otherwise make available on the Service or to other Members, such as chat messages, text messages, videos, audio, audio recordings, music, pictures, photographs, text and any other information or materials, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted (“Contributions”).