Benriach 21 Year Old Authenticus Peated Malt

...or rather, "Genteel Old Peated Speyside Malt". Mea culpa.

I wonder what the packaging is like. If you have to cut all the way around the seal to take off the cork, I suppose a new bottle could be Gentile.

Ever press send and then kindof had second thoughts?

@Nozinan, ha! I was amazed that I managed to get in the comment about the title revision before you caught and commented upon that mistake.

Oh, yes, sometimes after making a posting the second thoughts manifest themselves very quickly.

Actually, I am preoccupied with a tonne of work tonight and just glanced to see if there were any new comments. If you hadn't brought attention to it...

"Send regret" is an all-too-common affliction. In my experience, its most acute form presents itself when texting attractive women.

Now this thread means less because somehow the title has been corrected...

@Victor I am aloud to go back to the Scotch itself. Your nice review make me believe that this one would be a lightly peated version of the Septendecim. would you care to comment as I am growing very found of this last onend I m now wondering if the 21 should be on my wish list

@Robert99, I don't think I know the Septendecim.

I do think that you would enjoy the BenRiach Authenticus 21 yo. The peating level here is discreet, but I would call it at least moderate, maybe moving a little beyond moderate.

@Victor Thank you for your answer, I think I would like the Authenticus. The Septendecim is aged in Bourbon barrel with no big finnish. Instead you have a woody peat, very Speyside, with an incredible balance with the barley and the smoke. It is not flashy, but as you are saying, it is elegant. Is it too discreet for your taste, I don't think so.

@Robert99, I have had both the Septendecim, the Curiositas, and the Authenticus. And let me tell you to try before you buy. I adore the Curiositas and I really enjoy the Septendecim. I tasted the Authenticus side by side with the Septendecim, the Curiositas, and the 17yo Solstice (2nd Edition). I found the Septendecim to be exactly as you said (woody peat, barley, delicate smoke - very clean and balanced).

However, the Authenticus might be my lowest scoring whisky ever at 67. I thought it was so bad that I took some to @Victor to help confirm if he thought it was a tainted bottle. Apparently, what I find off and offensive doesn't seem to bother him at all!

To me the nose is all rotten tropical fruits (mango, papaya, guava and pineapple) mixed with peat. All I could get was burnt fruit and rotting vegetation in wave after wave of pungent sour sweet malt. The peat in this 21yo is actually stronger than in the 17yo Septendecim to my nose. Further, the Authenticus is much "thicker" with fruit, malt, peat, and wood, were as the Septendecim was far more clean, simple, and light.

I am grateful to @Victor's nose. I realize that things I cannot stand can quite possibly be enjoyed by others. Further, some offensive notes that put off @Victor I actually enjoy.

While I do share a great deal of commonality with @Victor's taste preferences, there are a few examples of outliers. The Authenticus is one clear example. I am not sure if I should put up my notes on the Authenticus or not. My experience from the exact same bottle that @Victor tasted is so extremely different. I could very well be in a very small minority who has “tropical fruit issues.” I my last trip up to visit we did find out that I am “sulfur blind.” Thankfully, sulfur will never bother me in a whisky! Maybe my sulfur blindness has heightened my other senses? Ha!

@Nock, your comments make me want to try some more Authenticus 21 yo, and then to sample it side by side with Curiositas and Septendecim.

So far, in Connosr reviews, no one other than you seems to find that whisky objectionable.

You gave me a 50 ml Authenticus sample bottle, with 45 ml remaining. Was your objectionable sample the first 5 ml from that mini bottle, a mini bottle from the same batch, or a full 700-750 ml bottle? Did you refill that mini you gave me from a full bottle from which you were drinking?

You never can be completely sure that you are drinking the same whisky if it is from two separate bottles. (e.g. Aberlour A'bunadh Batch # 45)

@Nock Thank you for your comment, it is a nice reminder that our tastebuds are all different. For example, the Curiositas has nothing special for me and for about the same price I would prefer the rum finish while I would go on a special trip to get a bottle of the Herodotus Fumosus. Coming back to Authenticus, I had a similar bad experience with a bottle of Springbank 10. I had rotten weeds when nobody seems to notice anything wrong with it. It was terrible. The good thing is that I have now other bottles from Springbank that I enjoy very much. I hope one day you'll get a taste of an Authenticus without that rotten taste as I find to be uncommon for Benriach to have bad bottles.