Benrinnes 12 Years Old 2011 Cask #306549 (Wilson & Morgan)

Benrinnes 12 Years Old 2011 Cask #306549 (Wilson & Morgan) is a 12 year old single cask Benrinnes from the Speyside distillery, drawn from a single ex-Pedro Ximenez cask, distilled under the modern double distillation regime at Benrinnes. This release was bottled by Wilson & Morgan, the Italian-Scottish independent run by Fabio Rossi from Treviso. Wilson & Morgan has been bottling single casks of Scotch from the Barrel Selection range since 1992. The release was distilled in 2011 and bottled in 2024, with a small outturn of 256 bottles, as an event-exclusive bottling, at 54.9% 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.

The ex-PX butt previously held the densest of sherries, made from sun-dried Pedro Ximenez grapes with residual sugar levels above 400 g/L. The cask carries glycerol and complex Maillard-reaction compounds into the spirit, producing dense raisin, fig, dark molasses and burnt sugar character that layers over Benrinnes' meaty new make into a profile reminiscent of dark fruit cake stewed in beef stock.