{"id":2136,"date":"2016-09-20T12:31:26","date_gmt":"2016-09-20T16:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/?p=2136"},"modified":"2016-09-20T12:31:26","modified_gmt":"2016-09-20T16:31:26","slug":"benriach-15-year-old-tawny-port","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/2016\/09\/20\/benriach-15-year-old-tawny-port\/","title":{"rendered":"BenRiach 15 Year Old Tawny Port"},"content":{"rendered":"

BenRiach has recently announced<\/a> a new 21 year old Tawny Port expression, apparently to replace the current 15 yo Tawny port-finished single malt in their core line-up.\u00a0 As such, I figured it was about time I write up my review of this one, before it disappears off the shelves for good.<\/p>\n

Port is a Portugeuse fortified wine, and comes in sweet, dry and semi-dry forms. I’ve even had white port, which is distinctive. I am typically a fan of port finishes for malt whisky, as I find it adds slightly sweet grape notes to the basic malt profile. Tawny port in particular is typically sweet (or medium dry), and often somewhat “nutty”.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned in my 12 Year Old Matured in Sherry Wood<\/a> review, BenRiach typically has a fairly gentle base spirit. This makes it well suited to fortified wine barrel finishing, in my view.\u00a0 Here are how some of the typical BenRiach expressions compare:<\/p>\n

BenRiach 12yo: 8.42 \u00b1 0.26 on 13 reviews ($$$)
\nBenRiach 12yo Matured in Sherry Wood: 8.69 \u00b1 0.21 on 11 reviews ($$$)
\nBenRiach 15yo Sauternes Finish: 8.11 \u00b1 0.53 on 3 reviews ($$$$)
\nBenRiach 15yo Tawny Port Finish: 8.51 \u00b1 0.21 on 11 reviews ($$$$)<\/strong>
\nBenRiach 17yo Septendecim Peated: 8.51 \u00b1 0.57 on 17 reviews ($$$$)
\nBenRiach 17yo Solstice Peated Port: 8.90 \u00b1 0.29 on 10 reviews ($$$$)<\/p>\n

And now some other port-finished whiskies:<\/p>\n

Amrut Portonova: 8.98 \u00b1 0.30 on 16 reviews ($$$$)
\nAmrut Portpipe Peated Single Cask: 8.80 \u00b1 0.37 on 8 reviews ($$$$)
\nArran Malt Port Cask Finish: 8.59 \u00b1 0.40 on 11 reviews ($$$)
\nBalvenie 21yo Port Wood: 8.74 \u00b1 0.40 on 13 reviews ($$$$$)
\nGlenDronach 18yo Tawny Port Finish: 8.54 \u00b1 0.39 on 4 reviews ($$$$$)
\nKavalan Concertmaster Port Cask: 8.32 \u00b1 0.59 on 16 reviews ($$$$)
\nLongrow Red 11yo Port Cask: 8.64 \u00b1 0.38 on 10 reviews ($$$$)
\nPenderyn Portwood: 8.61 \u00b1 0.42 on 5 reviews ($$$)
\nTomatin 14yo Portwood: 8.57 \u00b1 0.37 on 7 reviews ($$$$)
\nTyrconnell 10yo Port Cask Finish: 8.55 \u00b1 0.37 on 10 reviews ($$$$)<\/p>\n

BenRiach 15 Tawny Port is certainly within the typical range of other port-finished expressions (although at the low end of them).<\/p>\n

I had a glass of the BenRiach 15 Year Old Tawny Port from a recently opened bottle at a bar here in Ontario.\u00a0 It was my only drink that night, so I took my time with it.\u00a0 Here’s what I found in the glass.<\/p>\n

Nose<\/strong>: Sweet, as I would expect for a tawny port. Main fruits are raisins and grapes (doh!), with some subtler lighter fruits like apple. Net effect is sort of like a grape jam. Milk chocolate. I also get dry, musty woody notes, like sawdust. No off-putting solvent notes or alcohol singe (surprisingly mild, in fact).<\/p>\n

Palate:<\/strong> Fruit jammy, but with less distinct fruits now. Milk chocolate again, and even more musty oak. Pepper, producing some tongue tingle. Chewy mouthfeel, even a bit syrupy. It’s a great malt to hold in your mouth – you don’t want to swallow.\u00a0 Somewhat tannic and tart once you do, though. Fairly simple in composition, without much influence from the base spirit it seems.<\/p>\n

Finish<\/strong>: Medium finish. Oaky bitterness present throughout, as it has been all along.\u00a0 Surprisingly astringent. Nothing really unpleasant though, just a simple and gentle fade-out. Reminds me a lot of Kavalan Concertmaster.<\/p>\n

\"Benriach.15.Tawny\"The BenRiach 15 Tawny Port Wood Finish is an easy-drinking whisky, in much same the category as of the Kavalan Concertmaster<\/a>. It has less character on the nose though, earning it a lower score in my books (although it does about the same or better with many reviewers). There’s nothing to particularly recommend BenRiach 15 Tawny Port over other port-finishes, but not much to complain about either.\u00a0 I’m curious to see if the extra aging in the new 21 year old version brings up anything new.<\/p>\n

Some of the highest scores that I’ve seen for this 15 yo expression come from the folks at Quebec Whisky<\/a> (Andr\u00e9 and Patrick in particular).\u00a0 Personally, I’m somewhat closer to Martin and Eli (Elisabeth) in my rating. Richard at the Whiskey Reviewer<\/a> is similarly moderately positive, as is Jim Murray. End of the day, this is a decent dram, but nothing to get too excited about in my view.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BenRiach has recently announced a new 21 year old Tawny Port expression, apparently to replace the current 15 yo Tawny port-finished single malt in their core line-up.\u00a0 As such, I figured it was about time I write up my review of this one, before it disappears off the shelves for good. Port is a Portugeuse fortified wine, and comes in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[62,30,52,17],"class_list":["post-2136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whiskies","tag-15yo","tag-benriach","tag-port","tag-single-malt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2136"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2493,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2136\/revisions\/2493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}