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Benriach 25 Year Old Authenticus Peated Malt

Average score from 2 reviews and 2 ratings 90

Benriach 25 Year Old Authenticus Peated Malt

Product details

  • Brand: BenRiach
  • Bottler: Distillery Bottling
  • ABV: 46.0%
  • Age: 25 year old

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@MaltActivist
Benriach 25 Year Old Authenticus Peated Malt

BenRiach and I did not have a very good first meeting. A Duty Free salesman decided to off-load a 20 year onto me back when I did not know my peat from my feet.

And let me tell you that was a vile drink. The oak had inflicted so much damage it was literally undrinkable. But this is not a BenRiach bash. Quite the opposite actually.

After a brief hiatus from this Speysider I decided to return and since then have had many a pleasant experience. The latest in this growing list of tastings is this 25 year old named Authenticus.

There's literally no literature on the type of casks used to mature this spirit but I'm pretty sure it's second-fill bourbon. Could be a vatting of sorts as well between first and re-fill. But I'm guessing at this point.

Regardless this is a very fine spirit which BenRiach claim to have peated 'heavily'. After tasting so many Octomores and Port Charlottes heavy to me means something entirely different.

However, the peat is visibly there on the nose and palate so I'm going to guess between 18 - 25 ppm.

My sample is from a brand new bottle and served at a chewy 46%

Nose: Peat. Fishnets. Citrus. Chocolate. Pink melon. Licorice. Hint of oak Wisp of smoke. Hardboiled sweets. Some type of flower. Could be lavender. Water chestnuts. The peat is sweet, fruity and mildly floral. I really like this nose. Reminds me of old school Ardbegs. Maybe not as heavily peated or as salty but walks a lovely line between sweet and peat. 23/25

Palate: Mild melons. Hardboiled sweets. Oak. Chocolate. Mint. Cinnamon. A hint of all spice. Nice controlled delivery and the texture is on point. No lethargy after spending 25 years cooped up in a barrel. Could easily pass off 10 years younger. In a good way. 23/25

Finish: Develops as you wait. Lots of big peaty smoke. 23/25

Balance: 23/25

Strength: This is me being greedy but I could have done with a four more percentage points. 22/25

Variety: A good variety of flavors across the spectrum. 23/25

Quality: Top stuff. Sophisticated oak. Sophisticated spirit. 24/25

Harmony: A lovely marriage of flavors with each one on point and working well with the others. 24/25

Based on all the points scored I rate this whisky : 92.5

@galg

A few weeks ago The Benriach had announced they are making a few changes to their peated whisky range, and although their production of peated malts is only 12 weeks per year, I do like their peated line very much, and I am not alone, they are very popular, and show another facet of speyside whisky making which involves heavy peat.

The Authenticus was part of this range, this is no news, but until now it has been released as a 21yo expression , and starting end of march it is replaced by an older 25 year old expression. I’ve tasted the 21 yea old quite a while back (review here), and was looking fwd to trying this one, and see how the age change, changed the profile. In addition to this change the “Birnie Moss” NAS peated young malt has been added to this lineup and its bottle was changed in accordance with the rest. I will discuss that one on the next post. So let’s start dramming

Nose: Starting very spiced :pepper, Cinnamon and a lot of peppermint gum, sweet peat, leather, moist wood. an interesting mélange of aromas.

Palate: Peppery, spicy cinnamon (That bubblegum I remember from childhood) , earthy peat with spices, anise and Italian spice (Oregano,Basil,Marjoram) . Smoky and sweet. Good body at 46%. It’s like a well roasted chicken breast over coal fire in sweet marinade and Italian spices.

Finish : a whiff of smoke and herbs.

This one differes from the older version in being less sweet , with more herbal feel to it, quite drinkable, and rewarding.

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