Ben Nevis 18 Year Old 1996 The Whisky Mercenary for Whisky Troef

Whisky Troef is a Belgian malt whisky club. For their most recent club bottling they asked Jürgen Vromans – aka The Whisky Mercenary – to select a cask. He offered them a lesser known malt: Ben Nevis. It is mostly known as the fingerprint malt for Long John and other blends, but not so common as a single malt.

The nose is hearty and rich on peach, brown sugar, burnt malt, a touch of banana, caramelized oranges (loads of it, actually) and a whiff of nougat. Reminds me of the fruit mix with cookies that you serve a baby. Yoghurt. Becomes nicely creamy. This is off to a good start.

Wonderfully full, creamy and spicy on the palate. Feisty animal. Immediately sweet with an oaken edge. The citrus evolves towards slightly bitter grapefruit. Nice trace of woodsmoke. Apricots drenched in honey. Pepper, ginger, bit of cloves. Something mentholated too. There is a lot going on here.

The finish is pretty long and very spicy. It dies a bittersweet death.

Boy, what a pleasant surprise! The boys from Whisky Troef can be rightfully proud of this club bottling. Available for 95 EUR.

Find where to buy Ben Nevis whisky