Ben Nevis 1991 / 23 Year Old / Sherry #2914 / Signatory

Ben Nevis is a distillery near Fort William at the foot of the mountain with the same name. It is, by the way, the highest mountain in the UK with its peak at 1344 meters. In my experience Ben Nevis can be somewhat hit & miss, so let’s see how I like this 23 year old from 1991. It was bottled by Signatory in 2015 in their well-known Cask Strength Collection.

Wonderful mix of cooked fruit and… err… cola! The fruit flies on my terrace are having a field day… I have to wave them away constantly. Honeysweet on mandarin, blood oranges, Granny Smith, melon, honey and it goes on and on. This is a veritable fruit bomb. I think it is great.

It is quite powerful, creamy and honeysweet on the palate. And very drying. Wow! All the fruit from the nose reappears and much more. All of it in a wonderful marmalade, including some read fruit. Fruit fly… no, hang on, let me get that out of my glass… Darn. The spices are very loud, but not over the top. It gives this Ben Nevis quite some depthand complexity. And despite the high alcohol content, it is easily sipped without diluting. I recommended against water.

Cozy long finish, that leaves the mouth completely dry.

Wow, this was again a fan-tas-tic Ben Nevis. How weird that owner Nikka does not invest more in this hidden gem in the Highlands. It is a good thing that it is easy to find with the independent bottlers.

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