Benrinnes 2006 Adelphi Review

Hi everyone,

Arriving at the Whisky Exchange show this year, I had one whisky that I knew I needed to get my grubby paws on if I could: a dark as all hell Benrinnes that Adelphi had released and had sold out everywhere almost instantly online. A pre-2007 Benrinnes at that.

Luckily they had some to try as it proved fairly unusual…

Benrinnes 2006 Adelphi 55.5%

Colour: Dark Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Black cherry sauce, wet tweed, wet hay and grass but weird, clean but there's an off note. Doesn't really smell like whisky.

Taste: Oily, cherry and chocolate, spices with black pepper, wet tweed again and the that weird off note from the nose.

Finish: Long length. Wet tweed, weird wood and pepper.

On paper the greatest whisky ever, in practice I wouldn't even guess this was whisky blind. A real shame as I was very tempted to buy one.

However, this could be that its just going to be a very polarising whisky. Initial whiskybase rating look to be really high, so it could just be me…

52/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #792

Whisky Network Review #944

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Ledaigathon: 1994 G&M, 20 Cadenhead's, SMWS 42.22 & 42.21, 2008 Archives Reviews

Hi everyone,

A while back, um, at the beginning of May, I was in Canada for work and was able to meet up with the wonderful people of the Toronto whisky society. What follows are reviews that are their fault.

Knowing that I loved Ledaig, they’d secured as many as they could and greeting me on the table were a row of them. Of course, I felt obliged to review them (Its a hard life sometimes), although I didn’t get to them all because I wanted to try other stuff too.

Thanks to everyone for an amazing night!

Ledaig 1994 Gordon & MacPhail 53.9%

Colour: Straw

Body: Medium

Nose: Ah yes, clearly not Ledaig just as we expected after the other 1994 G&M. Clean with ozone, salt, green apple and a little cheese, some seaweed, light on the complexity.

Taste: Soft then spicy, ginger and black pepper, salt coming in, dried seaweed, losing power into the finish.

Finish: Short length. Lacking power here, very soft salt, ill fitting dry oak. Doesn't really work.

Bottled 2012. Mislabelled Tobermory again. The second time I've had this from G&M which makes me distrust all early 90's Ledaig.

71/100

 

Ledaig 1997 Cadenhead's 52.8%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Lovely complexity of lemon, aged smoke, epically oily, buttery but also salt crusted sailing ropes, leather and a little green grape.

Taste: So so oily, salt and smoke building up, spicy black pepper, white pepper, great leather and chocolate coming in.

Finish: Long length. Power, white pepper, mineral smoke, a white wine thing going on which is cool.

Gold label, 20yo. Very similar to the 19yo that I have a bottle of, but I prefer that one by a point I think.

85/100

 

Ledaig 2006 42.22 SMWS 59.3%

Colour: Straw

Body: Full

Nose: Very clean nose, a little abv, pure salt and white pepper, lemon juice, not a huge amount there but very pure and clean.

Taste: Soft, then a great balance of pure salt and white pepper, lemon juice and stem ginger. Again, compelxity isn't massive but the balance and purity is super impressive.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Salty and spicy, stem ginger and white pepper.

9yo.

78/100

 

Ledaig 2006 42.21 SMWS 59.4%

Colour: Light Straw

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Even cleaner and lighter... As in water. A tiny bit of green apple, a tiny bit of salt, Tequila.

Taste: Soft arrival, great saltiness, great balance again with the smoke, minerality, raw ginger and white pepper.

Finish: Medium length. Clean again, a little ginger and white pepper left.

I prefer the nose on this actually than the 42.22, but the taste isn't as good.

77/100

 

Ledaig 2008 Archives 60.9%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Dirty AF, burnt bacon, creamy vanilla, not a huge amount of smoke but a great balance, white german sausage, smoked sausage. Lots of sausage. Very savoury nose.

Taste: Clean arrival, great balance, salty, the Sherry comes through with dirty raisin, unami, bacon, so oily, mouthfeel for days.

Finish: Medium length. Creamy, sweet raisin and more overt peat.

Bottled 2016 I think, from a Sherry cask. Fan-fucking-tastic young Ledaig. Love it. Should have bought one when I had the chance.

84/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Reviews #779-#783

Whisky Network Reviews #924-#928

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Ledaig 2004 Blackadder, 2006 SMWS & 2007 SMC Reviews

Hi everyone,

More Ledaig?! Yes, always. There’s always more of them to try and we love to try and love trying to try and getting to try and all else besides.

Need we more introduction than that? No.

Ledaig 2004 Blackadder Raw Cask 60.8%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Oily and butter at first, but then a little tropical fruit (which is unusual), and a school rubber (eraser for those American’s) from your pencil case, alcohol hit from the abv.

Water: Woah, different. Floral, soap and lemonade. There's also some peach and apricot, peach yoghurt, funk. A mix of spice comes out too, dry oak, quite perfumed actually. Complex stuff.

Taste: Soft arrival, then really fills the mouth, some mango, very peaty, black pepper, a little school rubber, then malty and buttery with lemon, some mineral notes come in near the finish with chalk and salty rocks.

Water: Softer and better arrival, lovely intensity then with nice sharpness from lemon juice, white grape, oily smoke, salty.

Finish: Long length. Lovely. Great oilyness, buttery, sea salt and chocolate. Some salty fish with water.

Bottled 2015 at 10 years old. From a little 20cl bottle I picked up. Love the char floating around! Such a great gimmick.

83/100

Ledaig 2006 SMWS 42.27 59.4%

Smoked Aged Riesling

Colour: Straw

Body: Full

Nose: A very clean modern Ledaig. Salty sea spray and lemon citrus, powerful smoke lurking underneath ready to punch out, green apple and that gristy note I often find, like literally crushing a load of grist in your hands and smelling them.

Water: A little too clean and youthful for my tastes.

Taste: Surprisingly soft arrival, building this nice clean but powerful smoke, lemon citrus balancing and freshening it, green apple then that gristy note, very oily mouthfeel with a petrol-like note. Really follows the nose. More green apple into the finish.

Water: As with the nose, it becomes more clean and youthful. Lemon, green apple and salty smoke.

Finish: Medium length. A heady hit of petrol then green apple, sea salt and fading smoke.

Thanks to u/xile for this one. I love Riesling, so this one was awesome to try. There's moments of genius shining through here. Immaculately distilled spirit. But other moments of a spirity youthful whisky. I see where they got the Riesling reference now with the petrol coming through.

81/100

Ledaig 2007 Single Malt Circle 59.3%

Colour: Straw

Body: Full

Nose: Ethereal, oily and buttery. Peat smoke and malt but very maritime with sea salt, oysters and crushed seashells, candied lemon peel, ashes and soot.

Taste: AMAZING. Incredible arrival, super soft and clean, pure delicate crystalised lemon then very peaty and mineral, granite and salt, somewhere between Laphroaig and Kilchoman, crushed rocks.

Finish: Long length. More maritime and oily, some seaweed, sea salt crust.

Bottled 2018 at 11yo. Exclusively available in Germany at a good price. (Sobs into hands) I had a chance to buy a cask from the same batch of casks but didn't have the money (Yeah, I was buying a house… apparently having a roof over your head is more important than whisky). About as good as you get from Ledaig and Bourbon.

85/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Reviews #747-#749

Whisky Network Reviews #885-#887

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Benromach 2006 Single Cask & 1998 20th Anniversary Reviews

Hi everyone,

Ah, Benromach, the Springbank of the Highlands!

Gordon & MacPhail took the reins in 1998, unmothballing the distillery into its current form. They decided they wanted to produce a robust, traditional, slightly peated whisky that has real character and I think they’ve really succeeded in that.

For some reason I’m always slightly surprised when I taste Benromach and realise how good it is and how consistently good it is too. For me, its almost always scored in the 75-80 range.

Benromach 2006 Single Cask 59.1%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Lemon and creamy vanilla at first. Then I am reminded more and more of a Springbank Local Barley. More smoke and mineral than I would expect, funky with banana and nice Terpenes-petrol and whiteboard markers. Roasted nuts too.

Taste: Nice soft arrival, great transition into a dry development, refill wood (despite it being 1st fill), banana, yellow apple, dry spice, ginger and some minerality.

Finish: Medium/Long length. More yellow apple and subtle minerality. More like an unpeated Caol Ila here.

Bottled 2018 for Germany. Not as good with water. Very surprised by the amount of smoke to this, I expected less.

79/100

 

Benromach 1998 20th Anniversary 56.2%

Colour: Light Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Intense red apple, old oak, ethereal and very old whisky-like, a few ashes, cherry lip sweets as it opens up. Very elegant and complex nose that speaks more of 40 years in a cask, not 20! More smoky as it opens up with a delicious creamy strawberry.

Taste: Salty arrival then juicy red fruit, intense, sour cherry, black pepper, intense oak and spice to back it, clove, some smoke into the finish. Red apple.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Dry here, more of the oak and spices, ginger and black pepper. A little very dark chocolate at the end.

Bottled 2018 at 19yo. Quite dry and oaky, really could be 40 years old. Love the nose, but the clove and oak feel a little overwhelming on the taste.

80/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Reviews #743-#744

Whisky Network Reviews #881-#882

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Daftmill 2006 Summer Release Review

Hi everyone,

Daftmill is a small distillery. Daftmill is a farm. Daftmill started making whisky way back in 2005. Daftmill use all their own barely, from their own farm and the draff is fed to their own cattle.

The distillation regime is spilt between the busy seasons of the farm, 3 months each, one at the end of the spring and one in the winter.

I happened to happen upon Francis Cuthbert (the guy with the name on the label, as he quite rightly pointed out to me) and it was nice chatting for a few minutes. Very passionate guy and, clearly, a very patient one. Something very valuable when it comes to whisky…

Now, I’d heard some very good things about these and I’d been dying to try some of the whisky for ages… So I’d been looking forward to this.

 

Daftmill 2006 Summer Release 46%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Funky and different. Pleasant plastic, some fresh fruit, weird but more Christmas spice as it opens up, cinnamon.

Taste: Slightly weird, plastic then some spice, cinnamon, burnt gummy bears?

Finish: Long length. Quite astringent, cinnamon, a little harsh, more plastic.

An odd one. Is it bad whisky? No, I don’t think so. It just isn’t for me. Some people clearly like it a lot but I think I built this up too much in my mind, finding myself disappointed.

64/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #680

Whisky Network Review #814

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Bruichladdich 2006 Whiskybroker & 14 TBWC Reviews

Hi everyone,

Sherried Bruichladdich can be a wonderful thing and more and more of them have been appearing in the hands of various independent bottlers. Some of them are crazy dark, like there was a bucket load of PX Sherry sitting in the bottom when they filled the barrel.

These are two I’ve tried recently:

Bruichladdich 2006 Whiskybroker 55.7%

Colour: Coca Cola

Body: Full

Nose: A massive Sherry monster. Dark and rich with a lot of complexity to it. Dark orange, dark chocolate, tobacco, plum, date, sticky raisin, damp wood, complex cherry, cocktail cherry, cherry jam, fruit compote, there's some subtle minerality behind reminding you we're on Islay. Bran flakes, coffee, something liqueur like, maybe ameretto? Oh and vanilla fudge.

Water: Softer. Damp tobacco, dark Oloroso sherry, raisin, some Christmas cake, some marzipan, walnut. Less complex though.

Taste: Intense arrival, big whisky, lots of sharpness up front, sour, sour cherry, splintered dry wood (making me think it's an old one actually), lots of oak, really dry, puckering tannins, spices, no sweetness at all! Then more sour orange, malt, date and plum, fig, some chocolate and malt. Not too complex but the oak and sourness really dominate here. Tastes much older than 11. After some oxygen there's a little meaty note like some kind of honey glazed ham, quite delicious.

Water: Much softer arrival, none of that sour or sharpness, damp tobacco, dark chocolate, coffee beans, dark roasted malt eaten out the bag at a brewery, dark caramel, hard tannins, dry oak, quite spicy still too and virgin oak-like spices with ginger and nutmeg.

Finish: Long length. Darker, more tobacco, dark caramel, dark chocolate, americano coffee and some nutmeg and cinnamon spice. Great finish.

11yo, bottled 2017. Very oaky for the age, and some older Bourbon-like notes here too.

80/100

 

Bruichladdich 14 TBWC 50.5%

Colour: Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Darker than the colour lets on. Dark orange, dark chocolate, coffee, fig, some PX Sherry, plum and raisin, a little ash. More complex over time.

Taste: Sweet, PX Sherry, stewed raisin, black date and fig, dark orange, then dark chocolate, malt and black coffee, black cherry.

Finish: Long length. Very rich, very sweet, black cherry sauce, oak, spice. Drier.

Wonderful sweetness to this! If you've got a sweet tooth, this one is for you!

81/100

Distillery: Bruichladdich

Average Score: 79.3

Distillery Ranking: 12th/ 62 places

Up/Down: No movement

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Reviews #658-#659

Whisky Network Reviews #791-#792

Network Average: 75.0

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?