Decadent Drinks Sherry vs Bourbon Cask | 53% ABV

The Character Mirrors the Aesthetic

I first visited Fort William around about thirty-five years ago, at least that’s my first memory of it.

Since then I’ve returned, or travelled through it, comfortably more than fifty times - though the exact figure is one of those things you eventually give up counting. Sometimes it was camping, sometimes a hotel, and sometimes just a petrol stop on the way to somewhere better.

The trip that sticks with me most was a Hogmanay there - a last-minute affair after the friends we’d planned to see the New Year in with came down with something and cried off. Fort William got us by default, and did the job rather better than a backup plan has any right to. The thing that made that trip memorable though isn’t for sharing on the internet. It wasn’t illegal, immoral or questionable - it’s more in the embarrassing category and my wife still reminds me of it regularly. If you track me down in person feel free to ask.

Fort William is the waypoint you can’t really avoid on the way to the good stuff: Skye, Arisaig, Applecross, Fort Augustus (at the southern end of Loch Ness), or the Nevis Range with its cable cars and its strictly theoretical skiing in winter.

On most of those trips I drove straight past the Ben Nevis distillery and, I’ll be honest, it has never once struck me as a welcoming sight. For years I quietly assumed it had shut down altogether, a grey huddle of buildings that looked more like a decaying warehouse complex than a working distillery.

The distillery was established in 1825, sitting on the edge of Fort William, in the West Highlands, right beneath the Ben itself (all 1,345 metres of it - the highest mountain in the UK), and drawing its water from the Allt a'Mhuilinn (a fast-flowing stream that drains the northern slopes and north face of Ben Nevis).

It was founded by a man called John MacDonald who was universally nicknamed "Long John" on account of his towering six-foot-four frame, a height that, in 1825, when the average Scottish man stood five foot seven, must have made him look slightly God-like.

In the 1950s the distillery fell into the hands of a Canadian millionaire named Joseph Hobbs, who installed a Coffey still (a column still, the sort normally used to make grain whisky) alongside the pot stills. This made Ben Nevis the first distillery in Scotland able to churn out both malt and grain whisky under one roof, which I understand resulted in them marrying the two together before maturation - the so-called "blended at birth" experiment.

This practice was effectively banned under the Scotch Whisky regulations in 2009 – at least in relation to liquid you want to refer to as Scotch Whisky. It seems the Ben Nevis Coffey still got ripped out in a 1980s refit, but remains part of the Ben Nevis storyline.

Production stuttered, paused and restarted its way through the 1970s and 1980s until the Japanese house Nikka bought the place in 1989. They put money in, got it running again in 1990 and opened a visitor centre in 1991, which is roughly the point at which Ben Nevis stopped looking like it might quietly expire. Nikka had been buying Ben Nevis spirit for years before they bought the distillery outright and, to this day, a hefty chunk of its two-million-litre output is shipped off to Japan to vanish into Nikka's blends. The rest goes into Dew of Ben Nevis, the Glencoe blend, and the single malts.

Ben Nevis is gloriously unpolished, much like the outside of the buildings it occupies. Its spirit is a big, oily, brawny, faintly-funky beast that the more obsessive end of the whisky world loves.

And that brings me to the variation on my usual official versus independent bottling theme. On this occasion there's no watered-down 40% villain to compare against, because the official range is essentially one whisky - the Ben Nevis 10-year-old, bottled at 46%, is almost the entire official story and already covered on Dramface by Murdo.

For the full force of the Ben Nevis experience you have to go to the independents, and the independent scene around Ben Nevis is a busy one. Signatory, Cadenhead's, Gordon & MacPhail, the Thompson Brothers and plenty more have bottled Ben Nevis single casks.

So this time around we have a bourbon cask versus sherry cask from the same distillery, from the same period and bottled by the same independent bottler.

Review 1/2

Ben Nevis 12yo, Decadent Drams by Decadent Drinks, 8 years in refill hogshead and 5 years in a first-fill sherry hogshead, 53% ABV
£97 paid and still some availability

This is a 12-year-old Decadent Drinks release with 8 years in a refill hogshead, and 5 years in a first-fill sherry hogshead, according to the label. Those readers with keen maths skills will quickly add 8 and 5 and realise it doesn’t come to 12 – but that’s what the label tells us. That contradiction adds to the slight confusion I have from the front label which refers to 8 years in “plain oak” which to me initially meant new oak, but the rear label clarifies that as a refill hogshead.

This one got a 7/10 rating on the outturn sample review by Ainsley on Dramface so let’s see what I think of a whole bottle.

Score: 8/10

**Something special.**
***TL;DR***
*Really good - if you like industrial funk*

Nose

The nose initially doesn’t seem the most complex, but working on it over a more relaxed period gets you orange and dried fruits, frangipane, raisins and a bit of wood. There is also a hint of something funky and metallic on this one.

Palate

The mouthfeel is quite thick and a bit waxy. Immediately noticeable as sherry cask finished, this has fruity plums, orange, raisins and tobacco alongside kirsch and dark chocolate. There is a bit of peppery spiciness to it along with a touch of cinnamon. There is a definite metallic aspect to it which makes you think ‘industrial’.

It has a medium to long finish which descends into tobacco and wood, with some coffee at the back end.

I think some may refer to this as a bit dirty but I’m a bit reluctant to, given some of the genuinely dirty sherried whiskies I have tried.

Score: 8/10

Review 2/2

Ben Nevis 12yo, Decadent Drams by Decadent Drinks, first-fill bourbon hogshead, 53% ABV
£93 paid and still some availability

This is a sequel bottling to the sherried Ben Nevis 2012 that Decadent Drinks released in 2025, but is a fully bourbon-matured example. Decadent Drinks tell us that it is bottled with a few degrees reduction at 53% and there was an outturn of 287 bottles.

The colour on it looks far deeper and more golden than I might expect on a full bourbon cask, but it’s very appealing.

Score: 7/10

**Very good indeed.**
***TL;DR***
*Challenging, but really good*

Nose

It initially smells fairly new; raw even. I know that new isn’t a tasting note but if you’re reading Dramface I think you know what I mean. There is that fresh vanilla, pineapple and caramel that you would expect, but there is also a very mild solvent-like note, which I think is what is giving that raw vibe. It is a nice clean, sharp and pleasant nose even with the solvent addition.

Palate

The first thing I got was a load of fruity pineapple, a bit of apple and some pear. It is waxy on the mouth, but interestingly the tingle sensation on the gums is incredibly noticeable. There is some citrus fruit in there but it is not easy to get at. There is something that genuinely seems a bit industrial and funky on this - not unpleasant in any way, more challenging.

The finish is long, slightly oily, but descends into a dull bitterness reminiscent of a chalky, metallic taste.

Score: 7/10

The Dregs

I’ve sampled a fair few Ben Nevis releases over the past couple of years and, on the whole, enjoyed them, bar one that I simply couldn’t get on with no matter how hard I tried. It’s not a dram I’d hand to a newcomer and expect them to swoon on the spot. Ben Nevis has a bit of character, maybe on occasion a bit more than you asked for, and from what I’ve tasted perhaps the cask is what decides whether the whole thing comes together or falls flat.

Both of these examples are what you might refer to as burly; you aren’t getting into these for something light and floral. The liquid seems to mirror how the distillery looks from the outside: solid, functional and slightly industrial.

Having a bourbon and a sherry version of the same spirit sat side by side was a proper treat, and now I’ve had a taste for it I’d happily push the boat out further. Give me that bourbon cask up against something more experimental, a madeira or a mezcal. I’ve no idea whether it would work, which is precisely the appeal.

Maybe this is an incredibly niche scenario; two examples of spirit from the same point, with an easy comparator in cask maturation, and you are relying on the subset of whisky enthusiasts that would buy these (I am squarely in that subset), but I’d love to see an independent bottler with sufficient stock to do a series of these.

I don’t think my skills are good enough to decipher blind that these two are both from the same source point but with different maturations. There are similarities for sure, but only with the benefit of knowing the relationship. The sherry cask has potentially rounded out some of the industrial corners of its bourbon-only sister and, if so, it has done its job wonderfully.

If I’m nitpicking here, the sherry cask has maybe leaned in a touch too hard, leaving all that dried fruit to shout over the spirit…

All of which makes what comes next a little uncomfortable. Both are good bottlings and you wouldn’t be disappointed with either, but the sherried one pips the bourbon here, eight to seven. Ainsley had ranked the sherry cask version as a 7/10 in his sample review, but I definitely felt that it deserved just that little nudge higher.

The sherry version, despite being released earlier, still seems to be available on the Decadent Drinks website.

That noise you can hear is me eating my words, because I’d have bet the house on preferring the bourbon cask every single time.

Ben Nevis, of course, could not care less what I think.

Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. CC

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