Benriach The Sixteen
After sixteen years of maturation, Benriach develops a richly balanced evolution of our signature Speyside style. Three cask maturation in bourbon, sherry and virgin oak brings layers of stone fruit, smooth creamy malt, wild honey and nutty oak spice.
- COLOUR: Bronze
- NOSE: Baked apple and creamy hazelnut malt with overtones of ginger-spiced apricot and honey
- TASTE: Spiced stewed apple, stone fruit and mellow nutty oak, with honeyed malt and candied peel
- SMOKE LEVEL: Trace
“Our signature Speyside style blossoms at ten years old, finding depth and richer layers of orchard fruit character as it turns sixteen. Our core flavour components of fruit, malt and oak become more concentrated, enriched with age at sixteen years old, bringing layers of stone fruit, smooth creamy malt, wild honey and nutty oak spice.” - Master Blender, Rachel Barrie
Dictador Rima I American Oak Cask Vintage 1997
Dictador Rima is a sequent edition of a limited series of a collection of vintages aged under the supervision of Hernan Parra. Dictador’s Master Blender continues his masterpiece in splendorous creation of rums aged in American Oak casks finish.
Rima in Spanish means ‘Rime’ and just like in a poem one can find perfect symbiosis of words, in the bottles of Dictador Rima, you will find a perfect synergy of flavours and a unique tasting experience.
Nose: Freshly vanished oak flooring, with a decadent note of dark chocolate and cinnamon spice over the top. Rich honey and some earthy notes of high-grade maple syrup, too.
Palate: Bold with lots of fresh coffee notes, some ginger snaps and an element of honeycomb dipped in rich milk chocolate. Cherries, too.
Finish: Lightly spiced with a hint of cinnamon balls and vanilla.
Age: 21 Years
Cask: American Oak
Cask Released Total Bottles: 307
Dictador Parrafo I Fino Vintage 2007
Dictador Párrafo is a limited edition of vintages personally chosen and created by Dictador’s Master Blender Hernan Parra. This piece of many years’ works bore fruits in the form of a collection of excellent rums aged in American Oak with Sherry and Port casks finish.
The superbness of the rums in this series is proof of the craftsmanship of the Parra family and their multi-generational experience.
Nose: Maple syrup on the nose, with hints of freshly baked French pastries, and some apple compote. A back note of strawberries and cream.
Palate: Soft and delicate, this has some grape notes to it which give a natural fruity sweetness, followed by some earthy and spicy notes of cinnamon and cardamom. A hint of rhubarb on the end.
Finish: Light spices, some notes of vanilla and a hit of maple syrup from the start of the nose.
Age: 15 Years
Cask: Sherry
Cask Released Total Bottles: 290
Benriach Malting Season (First Edition)
FIRST EDITION
- COLOUR : Barley gold
- NOSE : Richly aromatic with barley sugar, almond fudge and poached orchard apple
- PALATE : Smooth and rounded with vanilla and honeyed pear, with the lasting nuttiness of slowly kilned malt
Dictador 2 Masters Ximenez-Spinola 1976
A 45 year-old Dictador Rum from a 1976 vintage finished in whisky casks was shipped to Jerez de la Frontera in the hot south of Spain. There the rum was matured for 9 months in 50 year-old French Oak Pedro Ximenez casks.
- Nose: A profound and mellow nose-feel, lightly nose-drying. The top notes are of Christmas cake with burnt edges, with toasted flaked almonds, becoming gamey and meaty after a while (roast grouse). The mid-notes are both fruity (old Madeira) and floral - a heady, scented fragrance of tropical lilies on a hot night. The base note is reminiscent of burnt toffee.
- Palate: A creamy, mouth-filling texture and a sweet taste overall, with treacle toffee in mid-palate and a suggestion of wine-marinaded and glazed pork. Then a perfumed finish, pleasantly mouth-cooling with lingering warm spice.
- Colour: Deep polished rosewood, with crimson lights. Slow, thick legs, indicating texture.
- Matured in 50 years Old French Oak PX
- Time of Finishing: 9 months
- Quantity: 390 bottles
Dictador 2 Masters Barton Straight Rye 1979/1982
After 36 years of aging, rum was put for 6 months and 14 days in previously used straight rye casks from the 1792 Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky.
- Nose : Charred oak, spiciness, dark fruits, peppery and tobacco notes.
- Palate : Upfront substantial cinnamon, clove and nutmeg which transitions to a buttery caramel, dark fruit, dark chocolate, vanilla and expansive rye spiciness.
- Colour : toffee, sugar cane, pepperiness, and charred oak with a long and lingering spiciness. A magnificent marriage of distinctive and contrasting bold flavors.
Dictador 2 Masters Nieport 1971/1974/1978/1980
Based on the flavour profiles of the vintages that he receives from Hernan Parra, Dirk Niepoort has made a unique blend, to make a singular rum. From one side before he put them in his own Port Pipes, he blended rums from 71 (49 years-old Rum) and 78 (42 Years-old Rum) and in another Pipe he blended 1974 (46 Years-old Rum) and 1980 (40 Years-old Rum), the pipes that he used are over 50 years Old Port Pipes and after 15 months he made a final blend between these two Pipes.
- Nose: A mellow nose-feel. The top notes are of almond oil – highly fragrant - supported by dried fruits (dates, prunes, candied angelica), on a base of marzipan glazed with hard toffee and dipped in dark chocolate. A suggestion of espresso coffee in the development.
- Palate: A smooth texture and a taste which starts sweet and dries elegantly to a long, warming, lightly spicy (black pepper) finish, with a trace of espresso coffee and crystalline sugar (and later dark chocolate) in the aftertaste.
- Colour: Deep polished rosewood, with magenta lights.
Benriach The Thirty
BENRIACH THE THIRTY / Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Four Cask Matured, Natural Imparted Colour
This exquisite single malt has been crafted from peated spirit and four cask matured for at least thirty years in sherry casks, bourbon barrels, virgin oak casks and port casks from the Douro Valley. During long maturation Benriach’s sweet Speyside smoke mellows and integrates with the fruit, malt and oak. After thirty years, rich layering develops into sublime honeyed smoke, further enhanced through multi-layered cask maturation. The whisky from each cask type, imbued with particular flavour characteristics, is then expertly married together to create an exquisitely harmonious single malt, layered with dark fruits, rich walnut and velvety oak spice with a long, complex, smoked honey finish. All in perfect balance.
Colour: Mahogany
Nose: Stewed plum, baked orange, smoked walnut and cinnamon cocoa
Palate: Dark fruit, manuka honey and chocolate raisin, with a long and complex smoked honey finish
Smoke Level: Complex
Awards
Double Gold Medal - 2021 San Francisco World Spirits Competition
92 points - 2021 Ultimate Spirits Challenge Competition
Benriach The Twenty Five
“Rich baked fruits, honeyed malt and a caramel smoke finish elevate the sumptuous, rich flavour of this four cask matured expression.”
- Rachel Barrie, Master Blender
A richly sumptuous single malt, interwoven with mellow smoke and a masterful curation of oak. After twenty five years, Benriach’s sweet Speyside smoke caramelises and is enhanced by four cask maturation in sherry, bourbon, virgin oak and madeira wine casks. This exceptional single malt will appeal to drinkers of richly matured sherry cask whisky, offering more intriguing layers of flavour with the use of three other cask types and mellow layers of honey malt and caramelised smoke.
Benriach The Twenty One
“A beautiful reflection of the landscape around Benriach. A real sense of mountain oak spice, fruit, creamy malt and elegant layers of smoke.”
- Rachel Barrie, Master Blender
At twenty one years old, Benriach takes on an elegant character, elevated by long maturation, four cask types and the combination of our unpeated and peated styles. The characters of aged bourbon, sherry, virgin oak and red wine casks intertwine to imbue layers of lush orchard fruit, toasted pinewood and a honey smoke finish. An exquisite and rare smoky Speyside malt.
Dictador 2 Masters Chateau d’Arche 1979
- Nose : Dark chocolate orange with notes of summer fruit compote. Ripe plums and orange zest add energy to nose which also gives some light ginger notes and rich Madagascan vanilla. Vintage leather completes the package.
- Palate : Crepe Suzette at first, followed by tangerine sweetness and some red apple notes. There is an underlying earthy note that adds complexity, followed by a sweet grape overtone that lift the taste again. A good balance between sweetness and earth.
- Finish : Rounded notes of candied orange peel and pear slices, coupled with a hint of smoky oak char.
- Matured in American Oak - Quintessence
- Time of Finishing : 34 months
- Quantity : 237 bottles
Dictador 2 Masters Hardy 1974/77
- Nose: Ginger snaps at first and a beautiful note of stone fruits comes through in the glass. This is backed by smoke, delicate toffee and strawberry notes, with a hint of grape.
- Palate: The ginger notes on the palate set up spices of cracked black pepper and vanilla which give way to plums, toasted coconut and black cherry. These come back with another wave of oak spices before more of the red fruits come to the fore.
- Finish: An oaky vanilla with subtle spices and some cigar smoke comes through giving a long and lingering finish.
- Time of Finishing: 35 months
- Matured in Limousin Oak Cask
- Quantity : 971 bottles