BenRiach 24 Years Old 1990 The Soul of Scotland (Anam na h-Alba)

BenRiach sits on the Elgin plain in Speyside, founded in 1898 by John Duff. Through much of the late 20th century the distillery operated quietly as a filler for Chivas blends, with single malt releases rare until the Billy Walker era from 2004 onwards. The casks from this period are now finite, held mostly by independent merchants who laid them down when the stock was originally destined for blending. This release was bottled by Anam na h-Alba, a small Swiss-German independent whose name is Scottish Gaelic for Soul of Scotland, specialising in hand-selected single casks released in tiny outturns. It is part of the Soul of Scotland series. Distilled in 1990 and bottled in 2014, the release had an outturn of just 86 bottles for the Belgian 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 24 years in oak, the cask was bottled at cask strength of 59.7% 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.