Scotch Whisky Review #212: Ben Nevis 10 Year Cask Strength Batch No. 1
Distillery: Ben Nevis
Region: Highland
ABV: 62.4%
Age: 10 Year.
Color: 1.2, Chestnut/Oloroso Sherry.
Nose: (according to the wife) It’s really pungent. It smells of fermented yeast, dirty gym rags, and rehydrated shitake mushrooms. It reminded me strongly of Kweichow Maotai…and that is not a compliment.
Palate: It tastes very much like the nose. It’s pungent, yeasty, and tastes like Kweichow Maotai. Nothing changes with water.
Finish: Medium in length. Lots of heat, even after water is added. Little bit of sweet bread pops through.
Conclusion: It’s not often that I pour a whisky and have to resist the urge to gag. Usually whisky, even whiskies I don’t care for, are at least fairly pleasant to smell. This one was a hard one to even taste. It’s incredibly pungent and just smells awful. It doesn’t taste any better than it smells either. I came across a review by /u/the_muskox that noted that he had better luck coming back to this after some time. I tried that and while it has become less concentrated, it smelled and tasted the same as it did when I first poured it. This is not for me, not in the slightest.
Final Score: 35.
Scotch Whisky Review #212, Highland Review #43, Whisky Network Review #305
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 (if feasible).
- 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.
Scotch & Sheen 
When it gets such a low score, now I almost become even more curious about it … even if it seems to taste that bad. Tnx for great post and better luck with the next dram! 🙂
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Thank you for the kind words!
I’m actually left wondering if there was something up with the bottling process. It seems that on the whole, this whisky was well received but there are a few folks on reddit who noted a similar experience to me. Perhaps part of the run was contamination or something to result in a few awful bottles and a few good ones.
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Yes, you’re probably right there (cork-failure maybe?) and let’s hope you’ll get a chance to try a “good one” from the same version, for comparison. Happy dramming! 🙂
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