Unpeated Malt Week on Whisky Odyssey:
Tasting notes for the Benromach Contrasts: Unpeated

Benromach has consistently been raising the bar on experimental whisky, before and since the inception of the Contrasts series. We have already seen the regular peated expressions, as well as triple distilled and barley varieties. All the while the legacy of Benromach is safe with a core range to drool over. Especially the 10 years old is truly magnificent and often mentioned in the same breathe as the Springbank 10 years old. High praise. In this unpeated malt week, we could not skip the newest Contrasts by Benromach, which was surprisingly an unpeated batch made in 2014. Not a variation I would have expected, so I am really curious to compare. I went through the sample drawer, and found an older expression of the 10 years old. For the fun of it, we will scribble down some tasting notes for that one too.

Benromach 2014, 9 years old, bottled at 46 % abv

Makeup: The whisky is from the 2014 vintage and matured for 9 years in sherry and bourbon casks. Part of the Contrasts series by Benromach.

General impressions: Despite the higher abv, I started this session with the unpeated version. Surprisingly, this Benromach (still) opens with quite a farmy character. Touches of hey and dry mud under your boot. Underneath that, there certainly are some hints of fruit. Vanilla, grapes, and these extremely sour candy slices that makes your mouth shrivel. In short: lovely smells! Then we take a sip. The typical omnipresent mouthfeel of the strong Benromach spirit. Floods the palate with gentle wood spices, hints of chocolate and a nice, hot finish.

There is a hint of freshness that I had to ponder for a moment. The best I can come up with is the taste of Belgian spring water, like Bar Le Duc or Spa. Some limestone, chalk, and a watery presence (in taste, not feel). With water, the aroma is enhanced, not changed. The taste shows more vanilla and wood notes. The finish (finally) reveals some of the sherried influence, with a very nice bitterish note.

Conclusion: The soul of Benromach is that the taste makes you feel you are drinking a single malt distilled in the 1960s. It is very interesting to find out that Benromach does not NEED the peated element to make them churn out fantastic, classical Speyside whisky. This is one of the better composed expressions I have tasted in 2024.

Score: 89 points

Benromach 10 years old, bottled at 43 % abv

Makeup: Core range bottling, in an older version of the standard look, before it was replaced with the more massive bottle.

General impressions: My sample came from a bottle that was one of the last before the makeover. Funnily enough, this one could well have been bottled when the above tasted Unpeated was being made. We are tasting this for … contrast. We will keep it short. On the nose, more limestone to the front straight away. Some earthy notes, but not close to a farm. More like, driving over the A940 passing the Dava Moor with the windows open. Peat, heather, mostly vegetal impressions. Taking a sip, my first thought is that this core range bottling of the time contained more sherry casks than the unpeated expression.

This, in combination with the 10 to 12 ppm levels used at Benromach makes for a golden combination. With water, the liquid appears sweeter in character, with some red berries taking the spotlight. The taste becomes a tad to bitter for me. The finish shows some weakness as well, due to the lower abv I suppose.

Conclusion: The 10 year old Benromach has gained quite the reputation, but I think it mostly started with this bottling. I do think that version was stronger than this one, but the groundworks were certainly laid with this (back then) very affordable and therefore bang-for-your-buck malt. For anyone interested in the journey that Benromach undertook, it is worth hunting down this bottle.

Score: 85 points.

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