Review #35: Benromach 10 Year

Distillery: Benromach

Region: Speyside

ABV: 43%

Age: 10 Year

Price: $9/dram at a bar

Color: 0.8, Deep Gold.

Nose: Savory with an interesting mix of smoked bacon and burnt tires.

Palate: Very thin mouthfeel . The palate starts a bit sweet with some smoke—smoked apples comes to mind—before it gives away to a beefy salty note. Up to this point, it’s fairly pleasant. Right after this though, there’s a horrible burnt rubber taste. It’s strong and just dominates everything. Very bitter and unpleasant. With some water, the rubber taste gets tempered a lot.

Finish: Short to medium in length. Again some more of the burnt rubber and smoke with a tiny bit of brown sugar.

Conclusion: I was really excited to try this. A scotch made by a distillery wholly owned by an independent bottler? Sign me up! It started out promising. The nose was savory and inviting and the palate starts out very lovely. The latter part of this one, though, is horrific. Perhaps the bottle I was drinking out of had oxidized quite a bit but the burnt rubber taste is so prominent and strong that it drowned out everything else. Unfortunately, this would not be one I will be looking to add to the collection.

Final Score: 70

Scotch whisky review #35, Speyside review #17, Whisky Network Review #47

Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection.
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
• Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.