Distillery History & Whisky Styles
A Speyside single malt Scotch Whisky as intriguing and extraordinary as Benriach could not have come to be without a unique whisky making heritage, dating from 1898, when founder John Duff built his distillery. Ruggedly beautiful, Benriach stands on the site of the old Riach farm in north Speyside, drawing water from a mineral-rich aquifer, deep beneath the distillery.
Thanks to a long-standing tradition of distilling three styles of whisky; classic unpeated, Highland peated and triple distilled, together with an eclectic selection of casks from around the world, the whisky makers are able to explore the full flavour possibilities of single malt, creating some of the richest, most multi-layered whiskies in Speyside.
This tradition continues today, under the guidance of Master Blender, Rachel Barrie. Benriach is the story of a hidden Speyside gem, quietly revealing its treasures to be discovered and savoured.
Classic Speyside
At Benriach, our bespoke distillation process creates our signature spirit, laden with fruit notes. We run the stills nice and slow to create a longer ‘heart’ of the run. This captures the maximum levels of esters in the spirit, which develop as fruit notes in flavour. It is this fruit-forward distillation that works to capture layers of abundant orchard fruits and citrus zest notes in the heart of Benriach’s spirit.
Smoky Speyside
Every year they distil Benriach peated spirit, a rarity for the Speyside tradition. They call this ‘Smoke Season’; a period when the rich aromas of peat smoke curl their way through the distillery. The historical research indicates some way Benriach Distillery holds the oldest and rarest peated inventory in Speyside, dating back to the 1970s. the peat comes from the Highlands of Scotland and imparts a stheyet, smoky woodland peat profile to the whisky. This flavour is quite different to the more medicinal theyst Coast peat, most they'll known for its use on Islay.
The Process
It All Starts With Water
We source all of ours from a mineral-rich aquifer, deep beneath the distillery.
During mashing - the process that turns barley’s starch into fermentable sugar - we use four batches of our mineral rich water, instead of the usual three. This takes longer but allows us to achieve maximum sweetness from the barley. We call it a ‘four water mash’. Fermentation is the next stage of the production process. We add yeast to the four-water mash to create the wash, a beer-like product ready for distillation.
This helps us unlock the abundance of orchard fruit notes that we look for in our signature style of single malt.
The Art of Creative Whisky Making
Within our warehouses lie one of the most eclectic cask selections to be found anywhere in Scotland. Our ‘sleeping beauties’ - as we often call them - are continually sourced from all over the world, enabling us to creatively explore the full flavour possibilities of Speyside Single Malt. This exceptional inventory allows us to revel in our craft, creating expressions with a rich and diverse marriage of different cask types. We use three casks in our 10 and 12 year old expressions, and four casks in our old and rare whiskies. Warehouse 13 is the oldest original dunnage warehouse from 1898, when the distillery was built. It is a constant at the heart of our creative maturation heritage and guards some of the rarest treasures in our eclectic range of cask types. Here we keep all three styles: unpeated, peated and triple distilled.
Malting The Traditional Way
Built by the intrepid founder, John Duff, in 1898, The distillery is also one of the two remaining distilleries in Speyside to distil whisky using malted barley from its own on-site floor maltings, a time honoured craft that is celebrated for one month each year, celebrating a tradition which started when the distillery was founded in 1898. Due to the many challenges facing Scottish distilleries at the turn of the century, Benriach Distillery closed due to Pattison Crash - the resultant closure of many distilleries in the late 1800's the distillery had to shut down their stills for 65 years. However, the floor maltings stayed active with Benriach continuing to make floor maltings for Longmorn, the neighbouring distillery. Both Benriach and Longmorn were owned by Glenlivet from the mothballing in 1900 and there was a train line that ran between the two to transfer the malt. If it wasn’t for this, Benriach may not be here today. So, one month a year, they celebrate Malting Season, when the finest Scottish barley arrives at the distillery for the tradition of being malted by hand on the historic malting floor, developing its wholesome and creamy character. It may be heavy work, but the results speak for themselves.
The Twelve
Sherry rich maturation for depth & smoothness
“Sherry rich maturation and layers of dark berry fruit encapture the flavours of Benriach in the autumn.” Rachel Barrie, Master Blender
Tasting Notes
- COLOUR - Golden Bronze
- NOSE - Rich Maple Honey, Cocoa And Baked Forest Fruit
- PALATE - Maraschino Cherry, Baked Orange And Hazelnut, With A Lingering Sultana And Spiced Mocha Finish
- SMOKE LEVEL - NIL
The Twelve is a rich and smooth expression of Benriach Single Malt. Matured in a sherry rich profile with the addition of bourbon and port casks, this intriguing ABV malt has layers of baked fruit, maple honey sweetness 46% and lingering oak spice.
The Sixteen
The Sixteen embraces the smooth and fruit forward flavour characteristics renowned in Speyside single malts
TASTING NOTES
- COLOUR - Bronze
- NOSE - Baked Apple And Creamy Hazelnut Malt With Overtones Of Ginger-Spiced Apricot And Honey
- PALATE - Spiced Stewed Apple, Stone Fruit And Mellow Nutty Oak, With Honeyed Malt And Candied Peel
- SMOKE LEVEL - Trace
To craft Benriach The Sixteen, Benriach spirit is three cask matured for at least sixteen years in bourbon barrels, sherry and virgin oak casks. The whisky from each cask is then expertly married together to create a richly balanced malt, layered with stone fruit, creamy hazelnut and overtones of fragrant spice, with finishing notes of wild honey and candied peel.
The Twenty One
An exquisite single malt with layers of elegant honeyed smoke
“A beautiful reflection of the landscape around Benriach. A real sense of mountain oak spice, fruit, creamy malt and elegant layers of smoke." Rachel Barrie, Master Blender
TASTING NOTES
- COLOUR - Honey Gold
- NOSE - Berry Fruit, Orchard Apple, And Oak And Wild Honey And Mountain Oak Spice
- PALATE - Candied Grape, Rich Cocoa, Smoked Pine Nut, Finishing With Caramelised Pear And Honey Smoke
- SMOKE LEVEL - Elegant
At twenty one years old, Benriach takes on an elegant character, elevated by long maturation, four cask types and the combination of our unpeated and peated styles. The characters of aged bourbon, sherry, virgin oak and red wine casks intertwine to imbue layers of lush orchard fruit, toasted pinewood and a honey smoke finish. An exquisite and rare smoky Speyside malt.