4x Benromach: Triple Distilled, Chateau Cissac, 2008 Single Cask & Peat Smoke

Hi everyone,

I’ve always been very impressed with the Benromach whiskies. They’ve all been hugely consistent in my book, scoring in the mid-high 70’s every time. Recently I’ve been placed at a few events next to them, so I’ve had a chance to try some of their new stuff and I continue to be impressed. Nothing has blown me away yet but the consistently good whisky is a big plus.

I’m also learning it can have some lovely Springbank type notes to it too.

I did also got a chance to try the 35 year old too, but didn’t have time to make notes. Great stuff, but please do it at cask strength you fools!

Benromach Triple Distilled 50%

Colour: Straw

Body: Light/Medium

Nose: Light and very fresh, could be Glen Grant. Watermelon, melon, under ripe mango, kumquat?, cream.

Taste: Nice abv, light but lots there. That melon and under ripe mango thing from the nose, natural yoghurt, some young spice.

Finish: Medium length. More natural yoghurt and melon.

Distilled 2009, bottled 2017. This is a little to light for my taste, although the quality is here. Very Glen Grant-esque with the light and delicate flavours.

70/100

Benromach Chateau Cissac Finish 45%

Colour: Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Bloody good. Slightly dirty, soot and well integrated red fruit from the wine. Could be a Springbank. Candy floss brings freshness.

Taste: Lacking power to start then overly spicy and tannic from the French oak maybe? A little soot and red apple. A bit flat here though.

Finish: Medium length. Great. Lovely red apple and black pepper combo. A little like an older Talisker.

Distilled 2009, bottled 2017. Chateau Cissac is a Bordeaux I’m familiar with as I’ve got a couple of bottles. It’s in the Haut-Medoc and uses mainly Cabernet Sauvignon, giving you a bit more tannin normally. The tannin doesn’t really come through on this though, which is probably a good thing.

Lovely nose and finish, but the taste is completely different and not nearly as good, which is a shame. Still, one of my favourites of the range so far!

77/100

Benromach 2008 Single Cask for Itlay 61%

Colour: Straw

Body: Full

Nose: The Springbank of Speyside! Chalky, sooty and austere. Some yellow apple, chimney soot, no youth or abv. White pepper.

Water: Remains austere. Nose doesn't change too much.

Taste: Soft, great arrival, sour lemon, lemon peel, chalky, citrus, a little orange, some soot, black and white pepper, a bit of grapefruit.

Water: Spicier but unbalances a bit.

Finish: Medium length. Some chalk and soot, then tingling. Spicier and longer with water.

Bottled 2016. A bit spicy with water, this is better neat. Really, this reminds me very much of the Springbank local barley. Which, of course, is a good thing. Great pick from the guys over in Itlay.

80/100

Benromach Peat Smoke 2017 46%

Colour: Straw

Body: Medium

Nose: Fresh juicy pear, slight barnyard but not much overt peat. Subtle minerality and melon.

Taste: Soft, light, melon, then green apple and black pepper, light smoke and subtle mineral notes. Ginger.

Finish: Medium length. Suddenly very peaty with very salty lemon juice.

47ppm. Distilled 2008, bottled 2017. Similar style to the triple distilled. Quite light and delicate for how peaty it is meant to be. Bloody Ppm doesn’t tell you anything, eh?

72/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Reviews #514-#517

Whisky Network Reviews #606-#609

Network Average: 74.6

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

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 am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Michter's x4 Reviews: Sour Mash, Unblended, Rye & Bourbon

Hi everyone,

American brands and distilleries are always super confusing to me. Who the hell produces what? There’s a tonne of brands on the market but not that many distilleries. But the source of the whiskey for the brand isn’t always disclosed, which sometimes makes it difficult to track down where the whiskey was actually produced.

Michter’s is another one of these, being an old distillery that never started producing again. They do now have their own distillery I think but a lot of the whiskey has been sourced from Brown-Forman I’ve heard (through minimal internet research), although officially it is unknown… See, confusing.

How do they taste though? I got to have a few of these at a tasting in Milan recently.

Michter's Sour Mash 43%

Colour: Dark Bronze

Body: Medium

Nose: Very honeyed, lots of caramel and toffee, vanilla, a little mint. Classic Bourbon flavours really. Lots of clove here too.

Taste: Quite a lot going on, honey, spice, oak, caramel, toffee, lots of clove, some vanilla and black pepper.

Finish: Very short length. Almost non-existent!

Shame about the finish. I liked this the least of these four.

62/100

Michter's Unblended Whiskey 41.7%

Colour: Bronze

Body: Medium

Nose: Different. More fruit, apple, more restrained but vanilla/caramel still there, liquorice.

Taste: Sweeter, fresher, apple, oak, vanilla, very little spice, some clove.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Honey and apple. Some oak.

Using a combo of new, recharred and 2nd fill barrels. Which is different and cool, would like to see more of this kind of thing. Like Scotch distilleries using virgin oak. Saying that, I don’t think this has worked really well.

64/100

Michter's Rye 42.4%

Colour: Bronze

Body: Medium

Nose: Quite light but the spices are there, clove, cardamom, a little coriander, liquorice. All quite light. Vanilla ice cream.

Taste: Spicy and intense, ginger, pepper, coriander, some cardamom, then lots of clove, a little harsh though.

Finish: Short/Medium length. The clove goes on.

I’ve tried the barrel strength version previously and I much prefer that. This seems a little weak, especially on the finish.

66/100

Michter's Bourbon 45.7%

Colour: Dark Bronze

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Darker, deeper caramel, dark chocolate, cold black coffee, smells like an old Bourbon, green peppercorns.

Taste: Dark, deep caramel, coffee, spice, lots of clove, then 90% dark chocolate.

Finish: Short/Medium length. More oak and dark chocolate.

You could tell me this was double the age it is and I'd believe you. I was told it was 5-8yo. As I said before, I quite like this style of Bourbon. Lots of really dark flavours here. Would love to try this at cask strength.

75/100

Thanks for reading!

American Reviews #45-#48

Whisky Network Reviews #602-#605

American Average: 69.9

Network Average: 74.6

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

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 am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Dat's Hat Rye Port Finish Review

 Hi everyone,

Another day on holiday, another day of feeling like I don’t have to write intros. Also another day of random whiskey I’ve never heard of.

This is a rye whiskey from Pennsylvania, 80% Rye, 15% Malted Barley and 5% Malted Rye. They age it in virgin oak quarter casks I’ve heard, before a 3 month finishing in port. Unfortunately that only makes it 9 months old in total and I don’t really understand how they think that’s long enough to actually do much of anything…

 

Dad's Hat Rye Port Finish 47%

Colour: Dark Bronze, purple tint

Body: Full

Nose: Weird, synthetic rubber, plum jam, acrylic paint, melting plastic. Not a good mix.

Taste: Weird, very weird. Melting plastic, burnt rubber, synthetic.

Finish: Short/medium length. Weird, more of the same.

One of the weirdest whiskies I've tried. On par with the Balcones Brimstone in terms of weirdness. But actually, this is worse.

I had an interesting discussion recently with a whisky blogger from Germany about scoring. I mentioned about people being afraid to score things very low or ‘bad.’ She gave the classic reply, questioning whether there is such thing as a ‘bad’ whisky.

Yes, yes there is.

43/100

Thanks for reading!

American Review #44

Whisky Network Review #601

American Average: 70.1

Network Average: 74.6

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

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 am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Widow Jane 10: Review #600

Hi everyone,

Whoo! Network review 600! But I’ve got a tonne of reviews to get through so I don’t really have time to dwell on it. Plus I’m on holiday and don’t have a bunch of time to research a long intro for some Bourbon I’ve never heard of. Onwards!

This is a sourced Bourbon from Kentucky but bottled in New York I think. I tasted this recently at an event in Milan.

 

Widow Jane 10 45.5%

Colour: Bronze

Body: Medium

Nose: Really fruity for Bourbon, ripe cherry, cherry pie, sour plum, not much else though.

Taste: Soft, then spicy, ginger, cherry, lots of clove, some orange, then average caramel/toffee/oak mix.

Finish: Short length. Cherry then nada.

The short finish is hugely disappointing and the fruitiness doesn’t quite jive with the rest as a whole. I was expecting more from 10 years old.

64/100

Thanks for reading!

American Review #43

Whisky Network Review #600

American Average: 70.8

Network Average: 74.6

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

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 am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Wild Turkey Rare Breed & Rye 101 Reviews

Hi everyone,

Wasn’t sure I’d get a review out today. Got stranded in Germany when my flight was cancelled, but managed to shlep across into France and now England.

I’m not the biggest fan of the turkey. I’m not going to make a joke about it being too dry, actually I just find it’s a little too herbal for my liking. But of course, I have to keep challenging myself and trying new ones, particularly if I want to get to 50 American Whiskey’s. So I got stuck in and tried these two.

The Rare Breed I’ve always wanted to try anyway because it’s in Ian Buxton’s 101 whiskies to try before you die, something I’ve been doing my best to complete (I’m getting there).

Wild Turkey Rare Breed 56.4%

Colour: Bronze

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Quite light but classic WT from what I remember. Ethereal, waxy, like sealing wax, slight oak, herbal, natural honey.

Taste: Intense here, spice, herbal, ginger and clove, a little chilli, dry oak.

Finish: Medium length. Oaky, dry, some herbal notes. Mint.

A perfectly nice Bourbon, but nothing standout from the usual 101.

73/100

Wild Turkey 101 Rye 50.5%

Colour: Light Bronze

Body: Medium

Nose: Again herbal and sealing wax, but added spice here. Lots of cardamom, vanilla pod, tyme and rosemary, some clove.

Taste: Intense, some fruit at first, then spice and herbs, cardamom, ginger, black pepper, then lots of dry oak.

Finish: Medium length. Caramel and some orange. Spices left over.

I slightly prefer this to the Rare Breed, it’s just a little bit more complex.

74/100

Thanks for reading!

American Reviews #41-#42

Whisky Network Reviews #598-#599

Network Average: 74.6

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

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 am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Review

Hi everyone,

So this next one is something I’ve been wanting to try for a while. I’m a big fan of cask strength whisky, and I was seriously surprised by the mega high strength GTS I tried.

I think I’m starting to learn that I’m a fan of this style of Bourbon. Older, darker flavours bringing a bit more complexity and power to the whiskey.

 

Elijah Craig Barrel Proof 68%

Colour: Dark-af

Body: Full

Nose: Oof, deep and dark, caramel, cold black coffee, espresso, herbal undertone, no sharpness or abv (which is pretty crazy), some nut, very dry raisin or grape, dried cherry dark chocolate.

Water: Lighter and more ethereal, also drier, cocoa powder and toffee.

Taste: Intense, great caramel, soft cherry, intense spice, black pepper, spicy oak, herbal background.

Water: Great, more balanced arrival, still spicy but more caramel and toffee.

Finish: Long length. Makes you think it's going to be short but really lingers with some chocolate and tingling spices.

Heaven Hill, 12 years old. Fantastic Bourbon! I really enjoyed this and, although the price is a little high here in the UK, I might have to buy one at some point.

80/100

Thanks for reading!

American Review #40

Whisky Network Review #597

American Average: 70.8

Network Average: 74.6

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

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 am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Jim Beam 12yo Signature & Rye Reviews

Hi everyone,

I promised more Bourbon, so I’m back with more Bourbon. This time some basic stuff from Jim Beam.

Beam is often said to have a peanut thing going on and I’d never really understood the peanut thing I think, until I tasted this 12yo that is. Because it’s got peanuts all over it.

I tasted these at an event in Milan I went to. Mission: To try 50 American Whiskey’s total.

Jim Beam 12 Signature 43%

Colour: Light Bronze

Body: Medium

Nose: Peanuts, peanuts everywhere, behind the peanuts it's more peanuts. Salted ones to be precise.

Taste: Very soft, 'smooth,' a little dry oak, soft spice and some peanut.

Finish: Medium length. Dry, oak, some orange.

Not my style, although preferable to the white (shudders) and the black 6yo. Peanuts completely cover the nose, which doesn’t allow for any complexity. But if you like peanuts, maybe this one is for you.

61/100

Jim Beam Rye 40%

Colour: Light Bronze

Body: Medium

Nose: The peanuts are there but there's some soft spice, green peppercorn.

Taste: Soft, green peppercorn, then corn and rye bread, ginger, some clove, even cardamom but remains very soft.

Finish: Short length. Easy with some oak.

Not bad. This is perhaps not as easy to drink as the 12, but easy drinking isn’t something I’m looking for. This has more complexity, which I prefer.

66/100

Thanks for reading!

American Reviews #38-#39

Whisky Network Reviews #595-#596

American Average: 70.6

Network Average: 74.6

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

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 am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?