Benrinnes 14 Years Old 2009 Cask #9064 (The Whisky Cellar)

Benrinnes 14 Years Old 2009 Cask #9064 (The Whisky Cellar) is a 14 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 The Whisky Cellar, the Edinburgh-based independent founded by Keith Bonnington. The Whisky Cellar selects single casks at natural strength without colouring or chill-filtration. The release was distilled in 2009 and bottled in 2023, with a small outturn of 233 bottles, for the German market, at 55.5% 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. Typical tasting notes include coal-gas, medicinal, plastic and rubbery.