2014 - 2023 Contrasts Series | 46% ABV

Score: 6/10

**Good stuff.**
***TL;DR***
*In an ocean of boring overpriced whisky, grab the Benromach life preserver*

Comfort Whisky

Standing in customs lines, overpriced airport food, uncomfortable chairs. Square arse, jet lag, travel bugs from hackin’ Harry on your shoulder. Presentation deliveries, project brainstorming, no comfort breaks. Full days, late dinner meetings, client work in the hotel until 2am. Repeat for 4 days. Dirty cab, standing in customs lines, overpriced airport food, delayed flight. Square arse, am I getting sick from green-looking Gilbert?, 40 degree Celcius drop into a blizzard. Expense reports, endless voicemails, hundreds of emails. Discombobulated, why won’t my phone stop ringing? Catchup is a royal pain in the arse so, why do I do this?

Conferences and work trips are never fun, at least for me. Most people think conferences are fun, time to kick back, tour a new city, and generally “not work”. But that’s far from the truth, especially for consultants. You’re always on kill-mode, ears pricked like a wolf, eyes like an eagle, attentive to any mention of “I’ve got this problem…”, “we couldn’t figure this out…”, and “we tried so-and-so and they couldn’t help”. That’s on top of keeping up client relationships, both new and old, and generally trying to solidify your and, in my case, your team’s job and financial security for the next 6-18 months.

They’re exhausting, made all the more acute when you know you’re leaving your partner alone with two young kids and two dogs while they also have to work a full-time job. Being tied down home with a 5 and 2 year old means that you can’t take the dogs for a spin in the evening, so we are calling in favours for someone to come over and either walk the dogs for us or be the responsible adult in the house in the event something goes awry.

That feeling of guilt is further compounded when you’re halfway through your trip and you get the dreaded “mini Broddy just puked” text. Talk about the feeling of being in a helpless tailspin, circling the drain of guilt, and feeling completely useless. So when you’ve landed, dusted and scraped off the six inches of snow off your frozen vehicle, while cursing the fact that you left your large winter coat in said vehicle because it doesn’t fit into a carry-on at all, you are thinking of what kind of house you’re going to walk into.

Is Mrs. Balfour going to toss everything my way and go have a hot bath in silence and blissful well-earned peace? Will I need to haul out a week’s worth of garbage, recycling, and walk the anxious dogs, with whom yours truly is their favourite, in the freezing cold as they’ve been reduced to a single walk per day from their usual two? Or do I need to pick up some ice cream, flowers, charcuterie spread, or other peace offering to bring forth as a sign of thanks, reverence, sheepishness, and guilt for abandoning my post?

Luckily, Mrs. Balfour is a rockstar. Grovelling is not permitted, nothing is demanded (although flowers are never a bad move), and generally she’s just excited to have a real conversation with an adult once the kids are in bed. In the case of the sick mini Broddy, arriving home after bed time and cracking open his door and silently sneaking in like a ninja, my heart was completely and utterly melted into a gooey pool when I gave him a big gentle hug that I was home, tucking him in and rubbing his back, followed by the most subconscious and heart swelling little smile of comfort after his eyes closed.

We all need to take comfort in the little things that bring a spark of joy and happiness in our lives as they are often far too few and far between these days.

Luckily, these Benromach’s are little beacons of comfort, a lighthouse shining brightly amongst the dense fog of overpriced nonsense flooding the market these days.

And that’s where the intro stopped, albeit about a quarter of the length of what you’ve just read. I’ll admit that I needed to write this intro twice. I’ve been burning the midnight oil heavily the past few months. Combined with the travelling and that’s why I’ve all but disappeared from Dramface in the past few months.

I feel as if my fingertips are calloused from hammering the work keyboard heavily, writing seemingly endless volumes of very technical reports and publishing two peer-reviewed engineering papers. What that meant was that the technical hemisphere of my brain was engorged and in full force, with the more normal laissez-faire, emotive, and plain writing hemisphere less exercised and struggling to compete.

Technical writing is all about using the bare minimum of words in your writing to describe the topic. My old undergrad school teacher used to detract 0.25 points from every sentence if they felt it was too expressive and not meeting the technical writing requirements usually dictated in engineering. Couple that with a grad school thesis and over 10 published papers since, plus a decade of consulting work, and my default writing style is very technical, to the point, and can come off as a bit terse.

But in reality, when describing phenomenon or relationships that can affect the structural stability or safety of people or the environment, it’s best that the words are kept to a minimum and let the universal language of math do the talking. Yawn, boring I know.

But this is part of what I love about writing for Dramface. The ability to exercise a different portion of my brain has been sorely missed over the past few months as has the mental balance it brings, both personally and professionally, but I’ve also missed sharing my experiences and interacting with all of our fine Dramface folks in the comments after every review.

Even reviews that don’t garner a large number of comments very often bring a nice cozy comfort when someone leaves a nice comment or shares their thoughts as well. While it’s great to have dialogue on someone else’s review, there’s just nothing like someone sharing their thoughts or personal touches on something you’ve written. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of that feeling!

So I’ve committed to getting back on the Dramface writing horse, bringing some semblance of balance back to my mental pathways and coupled with an increased exercise regime, effectively draping a thick cloak of comfort across my shoulders and balancing out my seemingly insane work that sometimes feels like an all-consuming black hole.

Broddy’s back baby! Let’s get into these comfort whiskies…

Review 1/3 - Broddy

Benromach Contrasts Peat Smoke, Bourbon Barrel Matured, 8yo, 2014 - 2023, 57ppm, 46% ABV
CAD$80 (£47) paid

Score: 6/10

**Good stuff.**
***TL;DR***
*Move over Islay, you’ve lost your way*

Nose

Clean and refined, presenting much older than 8 yo. I will say that the folks at G&M usually get close with their tasting notes and in this case, they absolutely bullseye’d the lemon sherbert note. Clean, dry mainland peat that doesn’t dominate the experience but provides a great canvas for the ex-bourbon casks. French vanilla, touch of dry woody smoke, accompanied with a little mint.

Palate

Sweet, fresh, smoky, and citrusy. There’s a nice little effervescence that uplifts the whole thing. The clean, dry mainland peat that is characteristic of Benromach is nicely imparted onto the individual notes. The french vanilla aspect follows through from the nose. The smoke is more impactful than the nose would lead you to believe, leading the experience from start to finish. Vanilla, citrus, and icing sugar sweetness ride the clean dry wave of smoke.

The finish is quite clean, with a lovely decaying lingering smokiness or peat phenols. A lovely drinker.

The Dregs

If I could equate this something from Islay, I would say this is a very close match to Caol Ila and Lagavulin. But that’s where the comparisons would likely stop. The price point of these Benromach’s absolutely blows anything Islay out of the water for the quality, age, and natural presentation. Islay whisky has truly taken a side road here, meandering their way into relying on their legacy rather than impressing us with their attentiveness to their paying customers. This is a truly ‘naked’ Benromach that shows the beautiful spirit that has been produced and I’m excited for future releases. So if you’re looking for your next peat hook, move past the overpriced Islay’s who’ve lost their way, and step into the land of Benromach.

Score: 6/10 BB

Review 2/3 - Broddy

Benromach Contrasts Peat Smoke, Sherry Cask Finish, 8yo, 2014 - 2023, 57ppm, 46% ABV
CAD$86 (£51) paid

Score: 6/10

**Good stuff.**
**TL;DR**
*Perfectly and appropriately priced for the experience*

Nose

Not as expressive as I was thinking it would be upon first pour given the age and phenolic ppm. Savoury and meaty, like a glazed smoked ham. Also quite rich and sticky, with buttery brown sugar and dash of vanilla. The smoke notes are conjuring a mix of a dry wood fire with some wet peat thrown on top, providing a unique balance between the dry and clean wood-based smoke and the billowing and earthy wet peat derived smoky notes.

Palate

Deft interplay of rich peat smoke and sweet sherry tones. Very smooth and unobtrusive entry, with a fresh cracked black pepperiness appearing at the mid-palate and staying until the end of the experience. The sherry sweetness (brown sugar, cooked red fruits, dates) leads the experience, followed by the dry wood and wet peat smokiness from the nose. Undertones of vanilla begin to pop up, before the experience trails off gracefully into a generic sweet and smoky style finish.

The individual notes are significantly more muddied together compared to the quite expressive bourbon release.

The Dregs

I had to go out and buy a core range Benromach 10 (2022 bottling) for comparison. I was confused by this Contrasts release and needed the 10 yo to calibrate side-by-side rather than relying on my memory.

And boy o’ boy, was my memory wrong. The standard 10 yo is much tamer, less smoky, and heavier on the vanilla in comparison. Far more muted and going back and forth between the two, I surprised myself in how far off my memory was. Goes to show that for a true comparison of a whisky, side-by-side dramming is the way to go rather than relying on memory.

The muddied palate transitions this whisky into a very good drinker category but fails to meet the individuality or expressive/nuanced criteria for a sit back and analyse type of whisky. I’m not complaining at all here folks, just acknowledging the fact that Benromach have nailed the whisky experience to the price point ratio here, if a bit lagging of the times. Or are Benromach banking on a relaxation of whisky prices and fervour and priced it as if we were 3-5 years in the past?

Considering it’s around 25-40% cheaper than some 3-5 yo whiskies from new distilleries (Raasay, Waterford, …, etc.), this is a downright bargain for a fully natural 46% abv 8yo sherried dram.

It’s perfectly situated in the market and provides a very good drinking experience. It’s 15% higher in price than the 43% abv 10 yo and 15-20% more of an experience. Well done Benromach in not taking us out back and fleecing us for our hard earned cash.

It’s a 6/10 whisky but a 10/10 would buy again.

Score: 6/10 BB

Review 3/3 - Drummond

Benromach Contrasts Peat Smoke, Sherry Cask Finished, 8yo, 2014 - 2023, 57ppm, 46% ABV
£50 paid

Like several of us here at Dramface Central, I’m a fan of Benromach. A big fan, you might say.

The Cask Strength releases, any of them, are some of the best whiskies I’ve had and I always have one open plus a few other vintages in the bunker here at Fort Drummond. Currently, the 15yo, Cara Gold, the 2012 Vintage Cask Strength Batch 1, the recent Bordeaux red wine cask, along with two Peat Smoke expressions, are always front-and-centre on my shelves.

When Broddy mentioned that he’d be reviewing the two most recent expressions of the Peat Smoke Bourbon Cask and Peat Smoke Sherry Cask, I jumped at the chance to tag along. However, I’m only tagging along today for the 2023 Peat Smoke Sherry Cask, as the Bourbon Cask edition I have is an older one (distilled 2009, bottled 2020) and so not quite the match-up that Broddy is doing.

I purchased this Peat Smoke Sherry Cask Finished bottle as soon as it was released last year. The previous expression, released back around 2021 I believe, was fully “matured” in sherry casks, whereas this 2023 is clearly labelled as “finished” in sherry casks. The earlier 2021 fully matured Sherry Cask was a banger indeed - I still remember it as my favourite whisky of that year, even at that earlier stage in my whisky journey.

Let’s have a wee taste of this most recent edition of the Peat Smoke Sherry Cask bottling…

Nose

Ash smoke straight away on the nose. Doesn’t come across as overly sherried. In fact, the initial bourbon maturation claims equal attention with the sherry characteristics, which are fairly muted. That quintessential Benromach savoury, slightly industrial/workshop note, alongside some pine oil, shoe polish, lemon, and light fruits in the background.

Palate

Oily, engine oil, ashy smoke, and light ginger. Vanilla and caramel. Drying. Some oakiness. Carrying from the nose is the pine oil, shoe polish, lemon, and very light citrus in the background. Again, not a sherry bomb by any measure. The sherry influence is here, with some red berry, perhaps cinnamon, and some spices. But, the spirit itself - that wonderful workshop-y industrial quality - is allowed to shine through here. The bottle specifies that the finish was in first-fill sherry hogsheads, and I of course take them at their word, but this tastes like second-fill casks, even for a finish. Spirit and cask are wonderfully integrated and married together here. Drying, ashy finish. Great texture and mouthfeel - oily and coating.

The Dregs

While I no longer have the 2021 Peat Smoke Sherry Cask - it’s long since rinsed and now serves as my Benromach infinity bottle - this is a different experience to that one. I recall that previous one being much more of a thick, chewy, rich, sherry bomb. This is not that.

The peated spirit definitely comes through here with what is more of a light-touch sherry finish. This, of course, was likely the point of this release, with some likely deliberate variation (a finish instead of a full maturation obviously indicates this) with the previous release. Despite these differences, I’m very much enjoying this.

This is a very solid 6/10, and if you pour me another dram of it I’m sure it’ll inch closer to 7/10. But, I’ll stick with 6/10 and add that I will definitely buy the next edition of the Peat Smoke Sherry Cask. For this experience, this quality, for this price, is a no-brainer in today’s market.

In an ocean of boring whisky out there right now for insanely inflated prices, I’ll very happily keep coming back to this - the best distillery in Speyside - as long as the value holds. And right now, across Benromach’s range, the value is definitely there.

Score: 6/10 DD

Tried these? Share your thoughts in the comments below. BB / DD

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