Benrinnes 14 Years Old 2010 Cask #36323 (Meadowside Blending)

Benrinnes 14 Years Old 2010 Cask #36323 (Meadowside Blending) is a 14 year old single cask Benrinnes from the Speyside distillery, drawn from a single ex-Oloroso cask, distilled under the modern double distillation regime at Benrinnes. This release was bottled by Meadowside Blending, the Glasgow-based independent founded in 2010. Meadowside selects single casks for its Maltman and related ranges at natural strength. The release was distilled in 2010 and bottled in 2024, with a small outturn of 271 bottles, for the European market, at 58.2% 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.

The ex-Oloroso butt previously held a dry, oxidatively aged Spanish sherry, with the oxidation generating aldehyde compounds including sotolon, which carry walnut, dried fig and roasted nut character into the spirit. European oak (Quercus robur) is denser and more tannic than American white oak, contributing leather, polished wood and a darker structural backbone. Oloroso maturation suits Benrinnes particularly well, with the sherry depth reinforcing the meaty new make profile into the bone-marrow and dunnage-warehouse character the distillery is prized for among bottlers.