Tasting Notes: The BenRiach Curiositas Peated 10 Year Old
The BenRiach Distillery, which one can find in Speyside south of Elgin and right near the Longmorn Distillery, is “independently owned” by a small three-man team (who have recently acquired Glendronach as well). BenRiach, with its “onion-shaped stills,” won Malt Advocate’s Distillery of the Year in 2007, and continues to produce high-quality, interesting, and, sometimes, peated expressions. The bottlings, while certainly fairly-priced, are also not under-priced. However, the distillery makes many of its expressions available in 4-pack sets of 50ml miniatures that go for $25-30 in the US.
BenRiach Peated Four-Pack
The BenRiach Curiositas 10 year old
Abv: 46%
The BenRiach Curiositas 10
Color: Pale straw gold.
Legs: A little tight, kind of slow. Very nice.
Nose: Oh, there’s peat. But there’s also something fresh (cucumbers, coriander), and then a nice sweetness with peanut brittle and maybe some prunes.
Palate: Soft but intense peat smoke; drying and slightly medicinal. The peat is the dominant flavour, but there’s a gentle sweetness as well, before the earthier finish.
Body: Full. A coating mouthfeel, but the strength almost catches up with the soft entry.
Finish: Lasting with a peaty earthiness and pleasant, oaky tingle on the tongue.
Overall: I really enjoyed this peated Speyside: a good, layered nose, plenty of peat on the palate (55 ppm phenol), a very nice mouthfeel, and a respectable finish. You can feel the strength of the alcohol, but in a good way. Smoke dominates, but it still feels like a balanced and enjoyable dram. And it’s not the sea-salty smoke of the Island/Islay whiskies, either– there’s a soft and earthy Speyside character to it, making it an interesting peat alternative.
Cost (750ml in the US): $50-60.
Other opinions:
A variety of ratings, and there’s not too much agreement on the subtleties of the drop, either.
- Pretty good scores from Whisky Magazine
- Only agreement at For Peat’s Sake is on the quality of the dram
- This “connosr” thinks it’s medicinal but just okay
- DrinkHacker can appreciate the (peaty) effort
- WhiskyDistilleries struggled to find some hidden complexity
- Jason at WHISKYhost recently found walnuts, spices, etc. in the 40% bottling and whished it was stronger
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Nice tasting notes. I actually picked this up at K&L on my way home from work yesterday. Really enjoyed the idea that we can try some interesting miniatures. Hopefully I’ll get as much out of this one as you did. Try the others yet?
I agree with your position that this is a nice peaty whisky with an underlying Speyside character and marks a nice change of pace from the big Islay monsters.
I wish I could have tasted this at 46% ABV. My notes are based on the British bottling srength of 40% ABV: Monsters of Peat
Slainte,
Jason @ WHISKYhost
Thanks for pointing us toward your notes, Jason. The strength seemed perfectly suited to the expression, so I’m glad there’s the 46% version out there; I wondered if it was just for the 5 ml mini, but Whisky Mag lists the bottle at 46% as well, so perhaps your advice was well taken.
Cheers in these wintery times.
-Mike Ef
sounds very good. in addition to Jasons notes, i think this will be high in my list…