\n<\/span><\/p>\n
This review is of the standard 10 year old bottling, at 43% ABV.\u00a0 There is a different higher “100 proof” bottling out there (57% ABV, based on the Imperial proof system).\u00a0 My sample of the Benromach 10 came from the Redditor wuhantang. Here are how the various Benromachs compare to each other, and the competition:<\/p>\n
Benromach Organic: 8.50 \u00b1 0.51 on 12 reviews ($$$$) Arran Machrie Moor Peated: 7.91 \u00b1 0.60 on 11 reviews ($$$$) As you can see, the standard Benromach 10 yo compares favourably with most of the other well-established names in this space (e.g., scores on par with the Springbank 10 yo and Caol Ila 12 yo).\u00a0 That’s an impressive showing, especially given the lower price of the Benromach 10 yo.<\/p>\n Here’s what I find in the glass:<\/p>\n Nose<\/strong>: A strong malted barley backbone. Sweet, with barley sugar and some hay notes. Light fruit in the background, pear, peach and citrus mainly. Lightly peated, at around the Highland Park-level (but without the overt sherry influence, despite the finishing).\u00a0 A bit of oak coming through. Also some mild notes of dish soap and a touch of sweatsocks. Better than it sounds, this is actually quite pleasant.<\/p>\n Palate<\/strong>: Pear\/peach again, orange, and some sweetness with golden raisins. Simple sugar and some butterscotch. Barley malt remains the main characteristic. Still has that hay note, but more grassy now. Some light spice picks up – more along the lines of pepper and Indian spices, not the typical baking ones. The off-notes from the nose are turning more toward glue now, but still not offensive. Smoke lingers nicely at the end, with some sweetness returning (first hint of that sherry finishing). As expected for the low ABV, somewhat light mouthfeel (i.e., a bit watery). Not bad, but not really a stand-out either.<\/p>\n Finish<\/strong>: Medium length. Smoke lingers on a Juicy Fruit gum base. A bit of dried ginger, which adds just the right note of bitterness to offset the lingering sweetness.<\/p>\n It terms of other reviews, one reviewer who really helped put this whisky on the map is Ralfy. He gave it a moderately positive review<\/a>, but then subsequently named it his “whisky of the year for 2014<\/a>“.\u00a0 Ruben of Whisky Notes<\/a> and Jan of Best Shot Whisky<\/a> are very positive.\u00a0 My own assessment is more in-line with the moderately positive reviews by Nathan the ScotchNoob<\/a>, Josh the Whiskey Jug<\/a> and the guys at Quebec Whisky<\/a>. There are no real negative reviews out there among my stable of reviewers (which is in itself quite positive).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Benromach is a tiny speyside distillery that makes an older style of single malt with a bit of peat smoke in it.\u00a0 This style is coming back into vogue now – I’m noticing a number of the established distilleries in this region (who don’t normally use peat) are starting to introduce new peated whisky lines. Owned by the large independent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[69,93,80,29,17],"class_list":["post-2854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whiskies","tag-10yo","tag-benromach","tag-peated","tag-sherry","tag-single-malt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854","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=2854"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2892,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854\/revisions\/2892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBenromach Peat Smoke: 8.45 \u00b1 0.25 on 12 reviews ($$$$)
\nBenromach Traditional: 8.38 \u00b1 0.47 on 11 reviews ($$)
\nBenromach 5yo: 8.79 \u00b1 0.20 on 4 reviews ($$)
\nBenromach 10yo: 8.69 \u00b1 0.26 on 20 reviews ($$$)<\/strong>
\nBenromach 10yo Cask Strength (100 proof): 9.05 \u00b1 0.13 on 9 reviews ($$$$)
\nBenromach 15yo: 8.62 \u00b1 0.50 on 8 reviews ($$$$)<\/p>\n
\nBenRiach Birnie Moss: 8.26 \u00b1 0.37 on 10 reviews ($$$)
\nBenRiach 10yo Curiositas: 8.58 \u00b1 0.30 on 17 reviews ($$$)
\nBowmore 12yo: 8.39 \u00b1 0.28 on 17 reviews ($$$)
\nBruichladdich Islay Barley: 8.54 \u00b1 0.23 on 12 reviews ($$$$)
\nBruichladdich Port Charlotte Scottish Barley Heavily Peated: 8.78 \u00b1 0.28 on 14 reviews ($$$$)
\nCaol Ila 12yo: 8.70 \u00b1 0.19 on 19 reviews ($$$$)
\nGlenDronach Peated: 8.53 \u00b1 0.27 on 6 reviews ($$$)
\nHighland Park 10yo: 8.47 \u00b1 0.28 on 14 reviews ($$$)
\nHighland Park 12yo (reviews post-mid 2014): 8.38 \u00b1 0.36 on 12 reviews ($$$)
\nJura Superstition: 8.25 \u00b1 0.48 on 19 reviews ($$$)
\nJura 10yo Origin: 8.00 \u00b1 0.39 on 16 reviews ($$$)
\nOban 14yo: 8.43 \u00b1 0.40 on 15 reviews ($$$$)
\nSpringbank 10yo: 8.68 \u00b1 0.24 on 19 reviews ($$$$)
\nTalisker 10yo: 8.91 \u00b1 0.17 on 21 reviews ($$$$)<\/p>\n![\"benromach-10\"](\"http:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Benromach.10.jpg\")
I would say the Benromach 10 yo is very good value for what it is: a solid single malt in this lightly-peated flavour cluster I<\/a>. Personally, I would probably still give both the Springbank 10yo and Caol Ila 12yo a slight nod over this one, but I agree it is better than the entry-level Highland Parks.<\/p>\n