Benriach - The Smoky Twelve 12 Year Old Single Malt (750ml)

Number 3 in the 2020 Top 20 Whiskey's, Whiskey Advocate.

 

From: The Whiskey Jug

https://thewhiskeyjug.com/scotch-whisky/benriach-the-twelve-review/

BenRiach The Twelve – Overall
Aroma is sweet and fruity with a strong malty presence and light bits of spice that slowly rise and add to the complexity; Palate is good and darkly sweet with a malty core and a richer waxier delivery than the 10; Finish is nice and easy with a touch of wax at the end.

This is pleasant, like, perfectly so. Such an easy and tasty sipper with zero to really complain about. It’s easy to sip and makes a nice Rob Roy.

BENRIACH THE TWELVE – FINAL THOUGHTS AND SCORE

A deeper, more wine-influenced (sherry and port), version of the 10 with a heavier sense of fruit and malt and a more elegant delivery. Enjoyable from start to finish, this is a lovely Saturday afternoon sipper and far more complex and enjoyable than you’d expect from a core 12 year old. Yup… this BenRiach The Twelve is nice.

SCORE: 3.5/5

The Smoky Twelve is the perfect marriage of fruit,malt, oak and rich layers of smoke. Crafted from a combination of unpeated and peated spirit and three cask matured for at least twelve years in bourbon barrels, sherry casks, and Marsala wine casks. The whisky from each cask is then expertly married together to create a smooth, creamy single malt, multilayered with flavours of ripened fruit, aromatic smoky sweetness and warming oak spice.

Toffee and cocoa aromas nestle with mild peat on the nose. The palate mingles toffee and dark chocolate with dried cranberry and tart lemon peel. Adding water brings peat smoke and black pepper forward, plus a hint of anise and vanilla into the drying finish. This is a 12-year-old single malt matured in casks that held bourbon, Sherry and Marsala. Kara Newman, 12/31/2021.

Benriach is a sleeper of a single malt, but that’s about to change. Part of a 2020 relaunch of its core line, this grabbed our attention with its sophistication, breadth of flavors, and lovely refinement. Much of the credit surely goes to master blender Rachel Barrie for creating a smoky whisky that both peat lovers and the peat-wary can enjoy. Rather than medicinal intensity, the peat is redolent of gentle, sweetly smoky fruits that integrate seamlessly with notes of vanilla, toasted almond, chocolate, blueberry, and bacon. It beckons like the wafting smoke of a warming autumn bonfire, then welcomes with its lush and velvety embrace. Number 3 in the 2020 Top 20. Jeffery Lindenmuth, Winter 2020.