Signatory Vintage Benrinnes 23 Year Old Whisky Review!

A 23-year old cask strength Benrinnes from independent bottler Signatory Vintage's Cask Strength series. Partial triple distillation, worm tub condensers, long-term maturation in a refill cask, and natural presentation at cask strength. Very promising!

Benrinnes Distillery (pronounced "Ben-rin-iss") is a quiet achiever. While most of its 3.5-million litre annual spirit capacity goes to owner Diageo's blended whiskies, in terms of single malts it's basically only seen in independent bottlings, with the exceptions of a fleeting 15-year old Flora & Fauna release, one early appearance in United Distiller's Rare Malts Selection, and two well-aged appearances in Diageo's annual Special Releases a few years ago now. Benrinnes was founded in 1826 around five miles south of the village of Craigallachie in the heart of the Speyside whisky region. It was completely destroyed in a flood only three years later, then a new distillery was completed in 1835, running until 1896 when a major fire forced large-scale repairs and refurbishments. The distillery was also completely rebuilt in 1956, and the traditional floor maltings were decommissioned in 1964, being replaced with a Saladin Box malting system which operated until 1984 when 100% of the distillery's barley requirements were outsourced to commercial maltings. Further "upgrades" occurred in 2012 including automation of the production process, with the distillery now run by a single human operating all equipment via a computer in the control room. Hardly the romantic imagery that we associate with a 200-year old malt whisky distillery in the middle of picturesque Speyside! Benrinnes was initially privately owned until being purchased by John Dewar & Sons in 1922, then DCL when Dewars became part of DCL in 1925, which would eventually become part of the modern Diageo. This is still an interesting distillery though, which like some of the other "workhorse" distilleries has a small but passionate group of followers who will hunt down good examples of independent bottlings of this single malt. A "workhorse" distillery is one that quietly pumps out malt for its parent company's blended products (mainly Johnnie Walker), staying hidden in the shadows and not getting much, if any, attention in terms of single malt bottlings, visitor's centres, or a marketing budget.

There are a few interesting similarities between Benrinnes and Diageo's more famous Mortlach site which sits a few miles to the east. The latter enjoys quite the cult following and attracts plenty of marketing attention from its owners, and has even been through a few attempts to launch & re-launch it as a single malt official bottling - which were fumbled by the owners' marketing department. Benrinnes on the other hand gets none of the above! There are three main similarities between these two Diageo malt distilleries; a slightly mysterious system of partial triple distillation, traditional equipment including wooden washbacks and worm tub condensers, and a "meaty" more viscous flavour profile that seems to work particularly well in ex-sherry casks. Diageo gets a lot of negative attention from some corners of whisky geekery, but when it comes to traditional production equipment they don't muck around - wooden washbacks and worm tub condensers in particular. Plenty of modern distilleries argue that such equipment doesn't make much of a difference and that any changes in profile can be achieved through changes in spirit cuts, but if that was the case, why would a corporation the size of Diageo not do the same? They'd cut costs and drastically reduce maintenance requirements, while increasing production efficiency in the process. The clear answer is that these traditional production methods do make a significant difference which can't be easily replicated otherwise. Diageo themselves found this when their Highland distillery Dalwhinnie was converted from worm tubs to modern shell & tube condensers in the mid-1990s, and the difference in the resulting spirit was so drastic that they promptly reversed the changes and re-installed the worm tubs. Any company, let alone one the size of Diageo, would not go to this expense and difficulty if the undesirable changes could be hidden by simply making changes to the spirit cuts. Unlike Dalwhinnie Benrinnes does not have a core range "Classic Malts" bottling, which means major changes in its spirit profile aren't as frowned upon...

Whereas Mortlach uses a 2.81-times distillation process that is the sum of a complex system where some of each spirit run is returned to the spirit stills to be distilled again, Benrinnes used a simpler system employing two wash stills to feed four spirit stills, two of which were smaller "intermediate" stills which were only filled with a portion of the feints from each distillation run - meaning that part of the spirit collected at the end had been triple distilled, while the remainder was double-distilled. I'm using past tense here because  unfortunately this system was stopped in the late 2000s, somewhere between 2007 and 2009, in the name of production efficiency. Since the late 2000s the distillery's entire output is double distilled, although the worm tub condensers are still used on all spirit stills - resulting in less copper contact with the spirit vapour as it condenses back into a liquid, giving a more sulphurous, meatier profile. So at the time of writing any Benrinnes that is 16-18 years of age or older was partially triple-distilled, giving a heavier, more sulphurous and "meaty" spirit character, which will then be amplified and enhanced by the worm tub condensers. As mentioned above, that heavier profile tends to show more in ex-sherry casks, whether refill or first-fill. And that's not what we have here!

This particular Benrinnes from independent bottler Signatory Vintage has been fully matured in a refill ex-bourbon hogshead, albeit for a significant period of 23-years! This is a single cask (#11715) that was distilled on the 28th of October 1996 and bottled on the 9th of March 2020 (wasn't that a fun time for us all!), yielding 287 bottles at a cask strength of 52.6% ABV. It is of course non-chill filtered and natural colour. Being part of Signatory's Cask Strength series means that it is presented in their very pretty decanter-style bottles, which has certainly helped get Signatory bottlings on more shelves than they would've been otherwise! Signatory Vintage has been around since 1988 and is still privately owned by Andrew Symington & his brother Brian who also own Edradour Distillery. I purchased this Benrinnes from the Australian importer The Whisky Company only a couple of months ago, so while COVID probably slowed everything to a crawl when it came to bottling and shipping, they still must've had this stock sitting around for at least a couple of years. Unfortunately that's a common thing with independent bottlings from lesser-known distilleries in this country, our small whisky market does sometimes sleep on things like this in favour of "sexier" and more collectable alternatives. That being said, I did purchase this bottle while it was on a clearance special for roughly $75 less than the regular price - it has since sold out, of course. This 23-year old cask strength single cask set me back around $250 AUD, down from $325. For those playing overseas, here in Australia the standard Glendronach 18-year old at 46% ABV is around the same price. So this was a no-brainer! Or was it...

Signatory Vintage Benrinnes 23-Year Old, 52.6%. Speyside, Scotland.

Distilled 28/10/1996, matured in a single refill hogshead #11715, bottled 9/3/2020. Non chill filtered, natural colour. 287 bottles. 

Colour: Full gold. 

Nose: Malty, dry, creamy, spicy, citrus-y. Rich Russian caramel fudge, creamy vanilla custard, bitter & sour orange rind, touch of hessian sacking & old ropes. A little burnt toast around the edges. Rich biscuity malted barley, slight hint of sour berry jam, and a pinch of dried herbs - tarragon & oregano. With more time, dusty old leather & sweet liquorice. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Oily, creamy, lovely. Very slight heat, very pleasant. 

Taste: Creamy vanilla custard but only slightly sweetened. Fresh orange rind, sweet & sour. There's a touch of negroni (bitter amaro cocktail) here, which I absolutely love. Bitter, sweet, orange-y and intensely flavoured. The biscuity maltiness is here again but less dry this time. Creamy Russian caramel fudge, and touch of sour (acidic) green grapes heading to the finish. 

Finish: Medium-long length. Black pepper, more fresh orange rind, malt biscuits, touch of milk chocolate. Those dried herbs again (tarragon & oregano) & a little sour green grape. Pinch of fresh sawdust. Slight bit of lightly sugared almond flakes, and creamy milk bottle lollies (confectionary). 

Score: 4 out of 5. Not far from a 4.5. 

Notes: Delicious Speysider with plenty of flavour, and decent complexity on the nose. Less to explore on the palate and finish, but I'm being picky. What is there is rich & dense, and I'm loving that sweet & sour orange with the creamy & malty notes. I do love a whisky that is on the drier & more sour/acidic side, particularly when there's an oiliness and maltiness alongside, so this is ticking a lot of my boxes! I don't recall having many ex-bourbon cask Benrinnes' before, which either means I haven't had many or they weren't memorable, but this one is great example of a drier, malty, sweet & sour Speyside whisky that seems quite "old school". Worm tub condensers, thank you!

Cheers!