Benrinnes 12 Years Old 2008 Cask #310640 (Elixir)

Benrinnes 12 Years Old 2008 Cask #310640 (Elixir) is a 12 year old single cask Benrinnes from the Speyside distillery, drawn from a single ex-Bourbon cask, distilled under the modern double distillation regime at Benrinnes. This release was bottled by Elixir Distillers, the London independent founded by Sukhinder and Rajbir Singh of The Whisky Exchange. Elixir selects and bottles single casks across multiple ranges and now operates its own Portintruan distillery on Islay. The release was distilled in 2008 and bottled in 2021, with a small outturn of 282 bottles, for the European market, at 56.2% ABV.

Benrinnes was founded in 1826 by Peter MacKenzie at the foot of Ben Rinnes hill in Speyside, with the current site rebuilt after a flood destroyed the original in 1829. The Edward family sold the distillery to John Dewar in 1922, and it has remained in the Diageo group lineage since. The distillery's distinctive partial triple distillation system ran from 1974 to 2007, when Diageo reconfigured the stillhouse to a conventional double distillation regime with two wash stills feeding four spirit stills. Vapours are condensed through worm tubs kept at very cold temperatures, restricting copper contact and locking in the meaty, sulphury new make character that has made Benrinnes a stylistic neighbour of Mortlach, Dailuaine and Cragganmore. Diageo replaced the worm tub copper coils in 2023, with the distillery returning to a stated 3.5 million litre annual capacity.

Ex-Bourbon American white oak (Quercus alba) was charred for the original bourbon fill, breaking down lignin into vanillin and syringaldehyde and releasing whisky lactones from the wood. Against Benrinnes' meaty, sulphury new make, the refill bourbon cask lets the distillery character show clearly, with soft oak vanilla and coconut running alongside the savoury, beef-stock undertones the worm tubs produce. Typical tasting notes include coal-gas, cooked vegetable, vegetative, honey, kippery and malt extract.