WHISKY BUSINESS
Benriach Distillery, Speyside
The Times, with Brown-Forman, 2022
I’ve written a lot about the hard stuff in the past 20 years. It’s a good gig that pays twice – in freebies and cash – but booze can be a ruinous thing to put words to. It can visit infirmities on its scribes that are more disabling than the shakes and slurred speech.
Living in a world of cliché and drunk on its own romance, the drink asks its writers, if they’re at all proficient, to lower their game. Too many times, on what I call “single malt automatic”, I’ve discovered myself, mid-sentence, conducting the weather from the eaves of a crofter’s cottage, burns gurgling, Highland heather flashing amethyst in the gloaming, a thistly burr issuing from my pen. Get tae fuck, Joey.
The temptation is to take the road even less interesting, and almost as well-worn, but no writer, unless they are also making whisky, has any business talking about esters and phenolic parts per million. It leaves a particularly unpleasant taste in this reader’s mouth to find my favourite lubricant to stimulating conversation inspiring imperfectly understood jargon – I do hate it when a spirited jig on the palette turns to dust on the tongue.
It is a lot easier to write about some whiskies than others, though. There are distilleries that are not wedded to their history, even if they’re rightly proud of it. They understand that their patrons are not only getting younger, they’re far worldier, too, better travelled and resistant to the sort of facile condescension to youth that used to be whisky’s stock in trade.
The future of the spirit is mindful drinkers who actively enjoy it in a variety of settings. Yeah, that sounds like an ad, I know, but what’s the alternative? Sloppy drunks giving bar-room wisdom a bad name? The wee dram of fireside confidences still has its place, of course, but – like it or not, my readers over 50 – it now shares that spot with artfully prepared cocktails and carefully considered food pairings.
Benriach Distillery gets all that. Perhaps it helps that it makes its whisky in Speyside, which is home to the highest concentration of distilleries in Scotland. And the region specialises in “mellow” whiskies of complexity, poise and charm – an easy taste to acquire, unlike the oily, miasmic malts of Campbeltown or the heavyweights of Islay, with their pitiless pops of camphor, menthol, tar and seaweed.
The distillery is in Elgin, which, equidistant between Aberdeen and Inverness, is Speyside central. It has changed hands a few times since it was established in 1899, and didn’t start producing whisky in earnest until 1965, but something like a knack for spotting trends in the industry before they were any such thing has kept it in business.
In the early Seventies, it returned to distilling some of its whisky in the 19th century style, using malted barley smoked with Highland peat, an unconventional move at the time (peat isn’t a major player in Speyside), meaning that its warehouses are now home to some of the oldest peated whiskies in northwest Scotland.
Benriach launched its first single malt – a 10-year-old – in 1994. The limited run was well received, and its balance of orchard fruit, malt and oak became the basic template for all the expressions that have come after, whether they’re peated, unpeated or triple-distilled, travel retail or special editions.
In 2016, the distillery was purchased by the American spirits company Brown-Forman (along with sister operations GlenDronach and Glenglassaugh), and four years later it overhauled its entire core range.
That core range, the creation of its master blender Rachel Barrie, who joined the team in 2017, makes the most of the distillery’s trump card: its warehouses, which house one of the world’s most diverse collection of casks – sherry puncheons, wine butts, port pipes, madeira drums, bordeaux barriques; as well as virgin oak barrels, which are toasted to order, from bourbon cooperages in the United States.
Barrie, a Whisky Magazine Hall of Famer and Keeper of the Quaich, put her palate, honed by sampling in the region of 150,000 whisky casks, to work. Benriach's 10-, 12- and 16-year-old expressions serve time in three different casks; and its more senior whiskies in four.
“I was excited to get to grips with a distillery of such impressive pedigree, but little did I realise what a gold mine I was sitting on,” says Barrie. “It’s all in our warehouses. I consider myself so lucky to have these components to call on, to bring innumerable layers to our whiskies. We use unpeated and, in some cases, lightly sweetly peated spirit, and introduce it to what we call a ‘world of flavour’ – our eclectic assortment of casks. They are known as our ‘sleeping beauties'.”
It’s hard – albeit delicious – science: whisky that’s spent time in barrels that once housed, say, Pedro Ximénez sherry develop a baked fruit, figgy quality; rum casks amplify notes of sun-ripened banana and pineapple; virgin oak lends a nutty, caramel flavour; and marsala barriques offer up peach and apricot.
“When I was creating the new range for Benriach in 2020, I had the image of a Speyside patisserie in my head,” says Barrie. “I wanted to celebrate the ideal balance of fruit, malt, oak and sweet smoke that a classic Speyside whisky should have – and then add to it.
“We have eight core whiskies, from The Original Ten to The Thirty. They have, in different ratios, spice, sweetness, smoke, depth and breadth; incredible intensity and great refinement. Fit for any occasion, they are also a cause for celebration in themselves.”
After a tour of the distillery, I was invited to sample five of those whiskies; and Benriach’s unfailing hospitality extended to cocktails and food.
——————————————————————
THE ORIGINAL TEN
Where it all started, essentially – as faithful as a Benriach expression gets to the distillery’s signature style: orchard-fruit forward, with honeyed malt and oak nibbling at its heels. This whisky is three-cask matured for at least ten years in bourbon barrels, sherry butts and virgin oak.
The nose promises freshness, nectarines, melon and cedar resin, which turn into spiced pear, smoked applewood, baked goods, nutmeg and ginger on the palate. It finishes with nutty malt, vanilla pod and a bite of apricot. The smoke is very subtle, insinuating itself into the conversation, but it goes along for the ride, rather than retarding its flow.
The Speyside Rob Roy
Named after an 1894 operetta about the Scottish folk hero Robert Roy MacGregor, the Rob Roy is a Manhattan that calls for Scotch rather than bourbon or rye. The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which made way for the Empire State Building, is said to have served it first, but there’s a bar in Hoboken, New Jersey (a city with a marked Scottish influence), that may have a better claim.
60ml Benriach The Original Ten
30ml sweet vermouth
8 drops of Bob’s Abbotts Bitters
Stir all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with a twist of orange zest or a maraschino cherry.
THE SMOKY TEN
A peated whisky that is cultivated and courteous rather than thumpingly traditional. It owes its complexity – toasted coconut, orange blossom honey and grilled fruit on the nose; peach, cinnamon, maple syrup and oak spice on the palate; all laced together with smoke – from its maturation for at least ten years in a combination of bourbon, Jamaican rum and toasted virgin oak casks.
Though it’s an astonishingly grown-up ten-year-old, this whisky has retained a sense of fun – its finish is a soft landing, all buttery goodness, barley and vanilla. As part of an aperitivo – with snacks in the Italian fashion (going back to the Romans) – it can handle an oyster (peated malts play nicely with shellfish), a Roquefort or Stilton, and sings along, in perfect tune, with an oatcake topped with oak-smoked salmon, capers and cracked black pepper.
Smoky espresso martini
Traditionally served with vodka, this cocktail started life in the Soho Brasserie on Old Compton Street as one of bartender Dick Bradsell’s off-menu specials. This version, a distant relation, is as big on comfort as it is on buzz.
45ml Benriach The Smoky Ten
15ml Kahlua
40ml esspresso
10ml Sugar syrup
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice, strain into a coupette. Garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.
THE TWELVE
This whisky is complex, touching lots of bases, but it is more than a jack of all trades. There is real mastery – and great invention – in its layers of maraschino cherry, baked orange and honeyed praline.
Matured, unpeated, for at least 12 years in sherry casks, bourbon barrels and port pipes, this tot walks a fine line between intensity and control, staggering only in jest: there are storms brewing in its depths, but they do not break; all manner of drama gathering in its wings, but the play still brings the house down.
An impressive production in three parts: it opens with maple syrup over blueberries, quince and bitter chocolate; the middle goes for a scrump through cherry orchards lined with beehives; and it closes with sultanas, mixed peel and spiced mocha.
If I had to choose a whisky to see me through a three-course meal, to have something interesting to say about each course, The Twelve would make my shortlist. It’s not that it’s "up to" the challenge, because such whiskies tend to be bruisers, and this one is lighter on its feet, with range rather than power. No, its appeal lies in its generosity: it can take on meaty entrées, with plenty of spicing, and its finish welcomes desserts.
Benriach boulevardier
The boulevardier, bourbon’s answer to the negroni, dates back to Prohibition and was a favourite of the writer Erskine Gwynne (she left America for Paris in the 1920s and edited a magazine named after it). It makes its first recorded appearance in the 1927 book Barflies and Cocktails, by Harry McElhone, the proprietor of Harry’s New York Bar in Paris. The book includes recipes, toasts and “bar life” instuctions, with much space devoted to an organisation dubbed the IBF, or “International Bar Flies”. This boulevardier remix, with Scotch, also answers to "Thane aboot toun".
45ml Benriach The Twelve
30ml sweet vermouth
30ml Campari
Combine ingredients to a mixing glass over cubed ice, stir for 10-15 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass over cubed ice. Garnish with orange zest.
THE SIXTEEN
A “victim” of high demand, this whisky, which is relaunching on November 1, having been missing since 2016, has got every bibber fanging their bottom lip in anticipation.
Crafted from peated and unpeated spirit that’s spent at least 16 years in sherry, bourbon and virgin oak casks, this executive Speysider begins full but firm on the palate, with a dense centre, both sweet and savoury, but it yields quickly, with a waft of wood smoke joining honey, stone fruits, ginger and apple crumble. The nose is generous, with vanilla making way for dark botanicals; snd the finish is long and dry, with a faint trace of chapstick, which brings bonfire night to mind.
The sparkling julep
The official cocktail of the Kentucky Derby, the mint julep, which centre-stages bourbon, is much storied: Teddy Roosevelt had his own recipe (a sacrilegious one, using rye, not bourbon, and slugged with cognac); and Faulkner, Fitzgerald and Hemingway were very picky about theirs. This Benriach version might raise eyebrows in Louisville, but it would go down a treat in Kelso, Ayr or Musselburgh.
15ml Benriach The Sixteen
20ml simple syrup
85ml Champagne or dry sparkling wine
10 drops of Angostura bitters
6 mint leaves
Muddle mint leaves and simple syrup in a julep cup or rocks glass. Add Champagne, whisky and bitters. Fill glass partway with crushed ice and stir gently to combine. Mound more crushed ice on top and garnish with a mint sprig and a lemon twist.
THE TWENTY ONE
A blend of peated and unpeated spirit matured for at least 21 years in bourbon barrels and sherry, virgin oak and bordeaux red wine casks, this single malt is a born performer.
From a languid start (the nose contains dark berries, manuka honey and nougat) to a drawn-out finish, The Twenty One plays the palate like Milt Jackson, with bursts of candied grape, cocoa, toasted pine nut, black pepper and caramelised pear, and a delicate curlicue of sweet smoke rising through it all. It has an easy elegance, the kind that turns a run for a bus into a ballet.
If any whisky begs indulgence, it’s this one. A fine foil for dairy-rich desserts – it’s able to both cut through and accent each element in a custard-cloaked apple and blackberry tart tatin – it’s best, for me, however, simply dribbled over vanilla ice cream.
New Caledonian sour
The bourbon-based whiskey sour has spawned numerous variations, but perhaps none so popular as the New York sour, with its red wine float. This is the Scots translation.
50ml Benriach The Twenty One
25ml lemon juice
15ml sugar syrup
1 egg white
50ml red wine (preferably Burgundy)
Combine the first four ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake without ice (to emulsify the egg white), then add ice and shake. Fine-strain into a rocks glass over ice. Slowly pour the red wine over the back of a bar spoon so that the wine floats on top of the drink.
