Official vs Indy: Benrinnes
Quartet comparison | Various ABV
A Mountain of Whisky
A ‘Ben’ in Scotland is a mountain – I dare say that a lot of you know that.
Ben Rinnes is itself designated as a “Corbett”, which may conversely be a term that means nothing to you, it almost definitely means nothing to you if you aren’t Scottish. The hill itself is located near Ballindalloch and Aberlour in Speyside – so there are a lot of whisky locations around about it.
In Scotland we are so proud of our mountains and hills that we grade them according to height and sort them with an approachable name for each category.
Munros are the best known of the categories, these are mountains with a height of 3,000 feet (914.4 metres) or higher. There are currently 282 Munros in Scotland – the most famous examples are almost certainly Ben Nevis and Ben Lomond – but they are of course spread widely across the west coast and central highlands.
Corbetts are the next category down and represent hills between 2,500 feet and 3,000 feet (762 to 914.4 metres) tall, with a drop of at least 500 feet on each side. There are 222 Corbetts.
Grahams are hills between 2,000 feet and 2,500 feet (600 to 762 metres) tall, with a minimum drop of 492 feet. There are around 231 Grahams.
Ben Rinnes is a middling hill at 2,733 feet (841 metres), it seems to be a popular hike, but not one I have ticked off yet.
I feel I have been dealing with a lot of Glens recently so moving to a Ben is a novelty, but somehow, despite moving from Glen to Ben, we are still in Diageo territory. Benrinnes is a recent try of dram for me though – as a single malt anyway. Benrinnes is a distillery you've almost certainly tried even if you don’t know it as almost all of its roughly 3.5 million litres a year of production goes into Johnnie Walker and J&B.
The original distillery was built in 1826, predictably destroyed (by a flood not a fire) a few years later in 1829, and then rebuilt. It passed to John Dewar & Sons in the 1920s, then DCL, then Diageo, where it sits now.
From what I have read, from 1974 to 2007 Benrinnes ran a partial triple distillation (which in reality was a two-and-a-half times distillation), which allegedly gave a full-bodied, meaty spirit. From 2007 it moved to double distillation.
And that was about the most interesting thing I could find about it. In the workhorse category this seems to pretty much deserve to go unrecognised.
Review 1/4
Benrinnes 10yo, Douglas Laing Provenance, August 2017 release, 46% ABV
£35 paid, now sold out
This was distilled in March 2007 and bottled in August 2017 as one of 354 bottles – it isn’t coloured and wasn’t chill-filtered. Unfortunately, I don’t know the date in 2007 the move to double distillation took place so there is a question mark over whether this is 2.5 times or just double distilled.
The palest of all the Benrinnes I have here.
Score: 4/10
Some promise.
TL;DR
All spirit, not horrible, but I’d avoid it
Nose
Nice on the nose, presents with loads of lemon; a nice, sweet vanilla and a bit of saltiness – not unusual for a bourbon barrel matured dram.
Palate
The taste comes across as an overly young spirit - a bit harsh on the alcohol notes. It is not that easy to pick out a lot over the alcohol, there is some vanilla and a degree of maltiness, but there is also a bitter woody note to it and it’s astringent – an over-stewed cold tea made from poor quality, reused tea.
Mouthfeel is not thin but nor is it thick or chewable: it is of little note.
The finish is drying and quite long but consists mainly of alcohol burn rather than anything particularly notable or moreish.
The Dregs
It’s a fairly dull dram in all honesty, definitely not worth recommending, but I would maybe push it to suggest you avoid it.
It started as an interesting question on whether it was distilled before or after the distillery changes. After spending a bit of time dramming with it, the answer is probably that I don’t care. At £35 there is much better supermarket fodder.
Score: 4/10
Review 2/4
Benrinnes 15yo, Flora & Fauna official release, 43% ABV
£65 paid, generally available
As I have discovered, there are relatively frequent independently bottled Benrinnes examples, but there aren’t many officially bottled single malts coming from them - nothing was released as a single malt in its own name until 1991 in fact. When that first bottle came it was a 15-year-old in the Flora & Fauna range, Diageo's release of obscure-distillery bottlings. It’s difficult to know when my example was bottled.
It is the standard 43% arrangement here and it will have been chill-filtered and almost certainly had caramel colour added.
Score: 6/10
Good stuff.
TL;DR
Decent, but there is better for the price
Nose
A pleasant nose, lots of different notes but none of them particularly strong. There are ripe apples, orange peel, some honey and dark chocolate alongside raisins, caramel and a bit of dark fruits in there somewhere.
Palate
The first thing that hits you is the liquid seems thin; you really want the extra weight from it because you know the flavour has been throttled back to bring the ABV down. Not hugely complex, but it is flavoursome and comes across as a (slightly) higher ABV than it is. It’s obviously been sherried and is a fairly standard sherry cask finish. It has really pleasant coffee notes (but not bitter), fudge, dark fruits and a good level of oak interference.
The finish is medium in nature, slightly drying with extra orange at the end.
The flavours are great, but the intensity is not at the same level as the nose.
It is definitely not exceptional in any way, maybe at a higher strength it would reveal a lot more, which is a shame.
The Dregs
For a 43%, chill-filtered and coloured dram it is solid and enjoyable but lacks a lot of depth or complexity. I will enjoy finishing the bottle over time, but it isn’t something I can see me regularly reaching for.
I don’t know when this was distilled or bottled but I can see from the internet it is still available and seems to have been available, on and off, since its launch.
Score: 6/10
Review 3/4
Benrinnes 13yo, Watt Whisky release, 58% ABV
£72 paid, perhaps a bottle or two still available
This is a Watt Whisky release of 318 bottles, distilled in 2012 and bottled in 2025 after spending its final 22 months being finished in an Armagnac Barrel. I don’t think I would have bought this one on the off chance it was good, but it was one I tried and really enjoyed at the Independent Spirits Festival in Leith at the start of this year. So based on that I bought it from Mark Watt at the event, but even then, it sat in the cupboard for two or three months before it was cracked open.
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
Worth reaching for!
Nose
The nose on this was pleasant but didn’t suggest anything exceptional was to follow. This has bags of apple, sweet vanilla with hints of melon, a lot of caramel and some orange notes and a hint of toasted nut at the end. It encourages you to nose it repeatedly.
Palate
Immediately on the first sip this seemed a bit under-aged, but I soon changed my mind – I think that was the Armagnac finish taking me unawares. A very well-balanced dram, complex apple and toffee, vanilla and apricot. Notes of grapes are there, presumably from the Armagnac. There are some orange notes too, a little pepper and some cardamom.
The mouth feel is oily with a medium viscosity.
Finish is long, warming and understated; a bit of cinnamon, but not hugely noticeable.
The Dregs
It was verging on an exceptional bottling: really enjoyable whilst not being too rounded. 13 years seems to have been an ideal point to have bottled this, and the Armagnac finish has presumably added that extra layer of complexity that just elevates it to a particularly interesting bottling.
This won’t last long on my shelf; it is one to reach for.
Score: 8/10
Review 4/4
Putachieside (Benrinnes) 21yo, Cadenhead’s release, Benrinnes spirit matured in vermouth casks, 50.9% ABV
£25 paid for 20cl, still available
This is a Benrinnes that was distilled in 2004 and bottled in 2025. The issue was that having spent its first 15 years in a perfectly (Scotch Whisky Association) acceptable maturation process, it was then transferred in 2019 to a cask which previously held vermouth. However, as vermouth has botanicals added to it after distillation, this cannot legally be called single malt Scotch whisky.
I spotted this in the Cadenhead's shop in Campbeltown and as I was in the middle of undertaking a Benrinnes review this seemed just too interesting to pass up. Putachieside was apparently the name of a ‘liqueur’ blend Cadenhead’s released in the ’80s and early ’90s and revived for this.
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
A different kind of ‘Campbeltown’ funk
Nose
Given it simply to smell blind I wouldn’t have guessed whisky; it is definitely herbaceous and mindful of the Becherovka type spirits from eastern Europe.
The nose is sweet and minty (peppermint), vegetative with a blast of pineapple, some citrus and apple.
Palate
The mouthfeel is immediately full and creamy, warm but notably mature.
It is initially slightly hard to pin down exactly what is going on in the flavour, it’s not something to be rushed. Orange and strawberry are to the fore along with honey and some plum. There is liquorice and there are aspects of herbaceousness - Italian herbs and oregano, along with a little mint towards the end, all presumably because of or amplified by the vermouth cask. It’s a bit more woody than I would possibly expect from your average sherried Speyside fodder.
It has a medium to long nicely warm finish with a thick to creamy mouthfeel.
The Dregs
What a great little treat this turned out to be. I really enjoyed this, perhaps because I love a negroni, but that vermouth connection could have been in my head wanting it to exist. But the vermouth influence just seemed to work for me and I enjoyed something having a different maturation.
Obviously, because it takes it outside of the regulations on what is Scotch, this isn’t a common thing to come across. So why would Cadenhead’s put a 15-year-old Scotch whisky into a cask that would take it out of the definition of Scotch whisky? I guess only Cadenhead's know that and I also guess that being the oldest independent bottler gives you the freedom to do just these things. Was the underlying Benrinnes just so bland at 15 years that something quirky was needed to liven it up? Given how the Douglas Laing example was at 10 years I can get on board with why Cadenhead’s did something so funky with it.
I’m a bit gutted that there were only 20cl bottles available of this. It seemed a safe £20 bet at the time and I have subsequently bought another – the chap in Cadenhead’s thought they had never sold it in 70cl – though you need to sell an awful lot of 20cls to sell out.
Score: 8/10
The Final Dregs
Like every new distillery I get interested in I felt the need to check out the Charles MacLean – Encyclopaedia of Scotch Whisky to get some facts. That has the view that the spirit has a “famously big robust spirit”. That has not been my experience with it. If anything it has come across more as a canvas that needs input of some unusual or exceptional nature to show its promise. A vodka equivalent.
The Watt Whisky Benrinnes is a must buy, another great outturn from the Campbeltown upstarts. The Cadenhead’s release was a great little novelty - very tasty and I’d recommend it; if you have the chance it’s got to be bought.
The Flora & Fauna was a bit more on the pedestrian side and probably reflective of the workhorse category of the distillery.
It’s not that often I have seen an Independent Bottle lagging so far behind in terms of quality - maybe I am missing something with the Douglas Laing bottling but it definitely makes me think young Benrinnes is to be avoided.
In terms of its ranking as a distillery this isn’t a Munro, it shouldn’t be a Corbett, but maybe it just squeezes in as a Graham: purely with the assistance of Watt Whisky and Cadenhead’s.
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. CC
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