Benromach Vintage 1968 (Bottled 2007) /43% / 0.7l

Benromach Distillery ceased operations in 1983 as a result of the deep crisis in the sector, and it seemed that this small, inefficient plant, then owned by a large concern (United Distillers), would never resume production.

However, in 1993 it was purchased by Gordon & MacPhail and after a five-year renovation, Charles, then Prince of Wales, officially opened the Benromach Distillery. Today, the plant, equipped with a single pair of stills, can produce 700,000 litres of distillate a year. The whisky presented here, distilled in 1968 (the year the distillery closed its own malt house), spent almost four decades in Oloroso sherry hogsheads and was bottled at 43% abv in 2007.

Nose : raisins and sultanas, Christmas fruit cake, roasted almonds, ripe berries, bitter orange jam, cocoa powder, forest floor, tobacco, sherry-soaked oak and a light hint of smoke in the background.

Palate : sherry, chocolate hazelnuts, toffee, raisins, prunes, orange peel, licorice, nutmeg, cinnamon, black pepper, tobacco, notes of leather and peat and a pleasant oak bitterness.

Finish: long, with notes of sherry, oak, dark chocolate, espresso, nuts, raisins, pepper, nutmeg and smoke in the background.