BenRiach Single Cask Bottling – Batch 9 34 Years Old 1977

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. Heritage stock from this period is finite, with the distillery selectively releasing remaining casks under Brown-Forman. This release comes from BenRiach's Single Cask Bottling, Batch 9, the modern programme of small-outturn cask releases. Distilled in 1977 and bottled in 2012, the whisky was drawn from cask #2588 with a small outturn of 280 bottles for the European 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 34 years in oak, the cask was bottled at 44.1% ABV, a natural cask strength reflecting the long evaporation.

The ex-Red Wine cask previously held a still red wine, contributing anthocyanin pigments, residual tannins and grape-derived esters to the BenRiach. The exact character depends on the wine, but red wine finishes typically deliver red berry fruit, dried herb and a noticeable wine-cask tannic grip. Typical tasting notes include chocolate, dried fruit, honey and vanilla.