Benromach 10

If I’m 100% honest, I have moments of doubt. Doubt that my reviews get to anyone, doubt that I’m not just screaming into the vast abyss of conversations and 1s and 0s of the Internet. I doubt that I can write, I doubt my ability to taste some of these things, and I wonder if I should be spending more time studying than doing what I’m doing.

And then I realize I have a huge pressure headache, nothing else I love doing, and don’t really care if I get any recognition. Because this is fun. I drink whisky and write about it. That’s pretty cool.

Benromach 10 is the first Benromach I’ve been able to try. While visiting Cadenhead’s in London (aka the Game of Thrones of Whisky stores), I noticed a lot of OB Benromachs. And I wish I could afford the costs to bring some of them back.

Why? Well Benromach started back in 1898. Since then they’ve been passed around like most distilleries. Now they are owned by Gordon and MacPhail, and updated to be run by one man. Opened in 1998, Benromach has brought out 15 different OB malts. That’s impressive.

Sure it’s not Bruichladdich impressive but don’t compare yourself to Gorillas when doing reps. 17 years and still bringing out 12 of the 15 is impressive.

So I should really review one of them, the second in the line up (the Traditional is the entry malt at NAS and lower Abv.)

Price: N/A in Ontario

Region: Speyside

Abv: 43%

Colour: Light brown

Nose: Ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, lemon, curry, leather, cocoa

Spice-y. Really spice-y. And tons of leather. Big parts of this reminds me of an old couch. Without the extra farts.

That’s right: The bonus is there’s no farts.

Taste: Smoke, anise, grass, milk, cumin

Smple, and interesting. It reminds me of a spiced lasse drink. Odd.

I don’t hate it, however I’m hoping for a little bit more than spice. The taste is a little different. I’ll have to see.

Finish: Mint, passion fruit, leather, pineapple, basil

Less spice, and the much needed fruit really balances out the whole dram.

Also: Don’t eat leather. It’ll make your tummy tumble. Not a good time. I didn’t either, just have read some bad stories about people attempting to eat their leather hats.

Conclusion: Again today I try a dram that is a good start to a lineup. It’s tasty, has a lot of spice (which I prefer), and has some unique parts to it. I assume that it’d be a lot more interesting with more Abv or maybe some finish or something else. I want to try more, and think you can do a lot worse than Benromach 10.

77/100

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