BenRiach 35 year

Benriach tasting evening, Sydney, June 24 2019. Whisky #4 Nose: Tropical fruits (papaya, mango), pineapple chunks stewed in honey and treacle. Muscatel grapes, raisins, very ripe pears and apples, hot chocolate. A minute hint of mint and oak. Palate: A sweet, gently fruity and honeyed arrival, dusky with dark fruit sugars (like the crystals you find on dried figs). The signature BenRiach spicy note is present, but balanced against the fruity flavours. The development brings a warm, earthy oakiness enlivened by every tropical fruit imaginable - pawpaw, pineapple in syrup, mango, starfruit, guava jam, mild stem ginger in nectar, sweetsop and mangosteen. As it opens, the earthy oak notes intensify a little and there is a mild elevation of the spice, but it never veers towards being hot or sharp. The texture is perfectly balanced between creamy and neutral. Finish: Long. A precisely balanced melange of everything in the palate slowly dwindles into oblivion leaving a subtle, creamy aftertaste. Assured, refined, poised and perfectly composed. A wonderful old whisky. The nose was completely unexpected. I had anticipated something faintly musty or perhaps dark and rounded, but in fact it is vibrant, bursting with life and yet simultaneously delicate. This is much more like the nose you'd expect on a fruity cask-strength expression. It was a delight to discover that the palate not only lived up to the promise given by the nose, but if anything it exceeded it. Concurrently full-bodied and serene, it is a palate that encompasses a vast array of flavours but never steps one millimetre out of perfect balance, a balance that carries majestically through into the finale. What a whisky, and what a revelation. BenRiach is characterised by a hot spicyness on the palate that, for me anyway, stands out too prominently and spoils the younger expressions. It was not until I tasted it in this very mature form that the whisky achieved a complex and balanced completeness - it seemed to have finally "come of age". This is easily the best expression of BenRiach I've tasted. If it were not so expensive I would have bought a bottle. "Outstanding" : 92/100 (5 stars)