My take on Benromach 10 yo

So far I've mostly engaged with standard bottlings of very well known and widely available whiskies. Now it's time to look beyond these highly visible malts, and try out one that is a bit more obscure. My choice for that is the Benromach 10 year old, which originates in the Speyside of Scotland, but is said to have more of a Highland character (a quick look on a map will tell you that the famous Speyside is actually part of the Highlands, but in whisky language the Speyside is a region of its own due to the sheer number of distilleries located there, and the distinctly different, more fruity character of most Speyside malts compared to the rest of the Highlands). On the container, the founding date of Benromach is given as 1898, but the distillery had a very interrupted history. A few years ago then, the then dormant Benromach distillery was actually bought by the independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail, renovated, and restarted. Although the modern core range of Benromach now seems to be very well available around the world, it still is one of the smallest Scottish distilleries in terms of production volume, which in my book qualifies for a non-mainstream malt.

My take on Glenfiddich 15 yo Solera Reserve

It's been a few weeks since my last post. The reason for that is that I was busy traveling, and I also brought something home from that travel, which will certainly feature in a later post on this blog. Stay tuned!  ;-)

Before my travel I summarized the experiences I made with my starting line-up, so by now I feel ready to dive deeper into the wide world of whiskies. And to get started with such an endeavor, once more, Glenfiddich provides me with a solid entry that is reasonably priced. After the basic ensemble featuring a no-age-statement whisky, a 10 year old, and two 12 year olds, I wanted to venture a little bit further into the direction of older whiskies, and the next step in the Glenfiddich line-up is the 15 year old. Since older whiskies are in general also more expensive to buy, especially a beginner has to be a bit more careful, but the 15 yo Glenfiddich cost me actually still less than the Laphroaig Quarter Cask, or the Macallan 12 yo. Therefore, I could buy it at relatively low risk, and it makes for a nice direct comparison with the Glenfiddich 12 yo, in order to figure out what whiskies might gain from being that bit older.