Benrinnes 18 Years Old 2000 (SMWS 36.162)

Benrinnes 18 Years Old 2000 (SMWS 36.162) is an 18 year old single cask Benrinnes from the Speyside distillery, drawn from a single ex-Pedro Ximenez cask, distilled during the partial triple distillation era at Benrinnes. This release was bottled by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, the Edinburgh-founded members club established in 1983. The Society identifies each bottling by a distillery code followed by a cask number, with poetic tasting names assigned by its tasting panel, and bottles every cask at natural strength without colouring or chill-filtration. The release was distilled in 2000 and bottled in 2018, with a small outturn of 224 bottles, for the European market, at 52.1% 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. From 1974 to 2007 Benrinnes ran an unusual partial triple distillation system across six stills (two wash, two intermediate, two spirit), with the feints splitting and recombining in a way that has been compared to a two-and-a-half pass distillation. Vapours from all stills 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.

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.