BenRiach 19 Years Old UD (UD – bottler)

BenRiach sits on the Elgin plain in Speyside, founded in 1898 by John Duff and operating on the same site as its sister distillery Longmorn. Mothballed for 65 years after the Pattison crash, the distillery reopened in 1965 as a blending malt for Chivas, and was reborn as a single malt focus under Billy Walker from 2004 onwards. Brown-Forman acquired BenRiach in 2016 with Dr Rachel Barrie as Master Blender, retaining the cask-diverse house style and the three distillate styles (classic Speyside, peated, and triple-distilled) alongside reactivated floor maltings. This release was bottled by an undisclosed independent merchant. Bottlers occasionally release casks without their own branding when contractual or supply terms require anonymity. Bottled in 2009 at 19 years old, the release had an outturn of just 41 bottles for the Danish market.

BenRiach distils on two pairs of copper pot stills, with ogee-shaped wash stills feeding onion-shaped spirit stills under steam heat. Fermentation runs between 48 and 100 hours in stainless steel washbacks on Mauri liquid yeast, with new make collected at 68% ABV before filling to cask. After 19 years in oak, the cask was bottled at cask strength of 51.3% ABV.

The ex-Oloroso butt previously held a dry, oxidatively aged Spanish sherry, with the oxidation generating aldehyde compounds including sotolon, which carry distinctive walnut, dried fig and roasted nut character into the BenRiach. European oak (Quercus robur) is denser and more tannic than American white oak, contributing leather, polished wood and a darker structural backbone. Typical tasting notes include dried fruit, fresh fruit, honey, old wood and sherried.