Benriach
The distillery was founded in 1898 by John Duff. He was the owner of the Longmorn Distillery. The distillery lies in the heart of the Speyside between the Town Rothes and the city Elgin.
| Information about the Distillery | |
|---|---|
| Scotland, Speyside | |
| -3.292900 57.611900 | |
| Active | |
| Benriach Distillery Company Ltd. | |
|
2 x 15,000 l
Pear
|
|
|
2 x 9,500 l
Pear
|
|
|
8 x 30,000 l
|
|
| 6 t | |
| 1898 | |
| 3,000,000 l | |
| http://www.benriachdistillery.co.uk/ |
| Average tasting notes Tasting Notes |
Calculated from 1,166
i
|
|
|---|---|---|
|
Nosing
Fruit:
Sweet:
Sherry:
Vanilla:
Peat Smoke:
Spices:
Oak:
Honey:
Herbs:
Nuts:
Malt:
Berries:
Chocolate:
Herb:
Raisin:
Heather:
Zitrus:
Dried Fruit:
Apple:
Pear:
Alcohol:
Caramel:
Cinnamon:
Dark Chocolate:
Bonfire Smoke:
Peach:
Grape:
Cherry:
Floral:
Plum:
Orange:
Coffee:
Barley:
Green Apple:
Mint:
Maritime Notes:
Blackberry:
Seaweed:
Leather:
Ginger:
Tropical Fruit:
Grass:
Fig:
Clove:
Pineapple:
Lemon:
Date:
Nutmeg:
Almonds:
Oil:
Ham:
Hay:
Banana:
Pepper:
Chili:
Cake:
Melon:
Strawberry:
Medicinal Smoke:
Coconut:
Wheat:
Iodine:
Kiwi:
Tobacco:
Grapefruit:
Anise:
Black Currant:
Salt:
Walnut:
Hazelnut:
Cheese:
Red Currant:
Lime:
Tasting
Sweet:
Fruit:
Spices:
Sherry:
Oak:
Peat Smoke:
Nuts:
Vanilla:
Honey:
Herb:
Malt:
Herbs:
Pepper:
Chocolate:
Oil:
Zitrus:
Heather:
Chili:
Berries:
Raisin:
Caramel:
Dark Chocolate:
Alcohol:
Coffee:
Dried Fruit:
Pear:
Peach:
Cinnamon:
Apple:
Cherry:
Leather:
Bonfire Smoke:
Ginger:
Fig:
Maritime Notes:
Orange:
Floral:
Plum:
Lemon:
Salt:
Grape:
Banana:
Clove:
Cake:
Date:
Ham:
Almonds:
Anise:
Hazelnut:
Blackberry:
Nutmeg:
Tropical Fruit:
Pineapple:
Green Apple:
Wheat:
Grapefruit:
Barley:
Seaweed:
Lime:
Tobacco:
Medicinal Smoke:
Mint:
Grass:
Coconut:
Kiwi:
Cheese:
Red Currant:
Strawberry:
Walnut:
Hay:
Melon:
Black Currant:
Lemon Peel:
Finish
Spices:
Oak:
Sweet:
Fruit:
Peat Smoke:
Sherry:
Malt:
Herb:
Nuts:
Dark Chocolate:
Chocolate:
Pepper:
Coffee:
Zitrus:
Oil:
Honey:
Herbs:
Vanilla:
Chili:
Dried Fruit:
Heather:
Caramel:
Maritime Notes:
Berries:
Orange:
Barley:
Cherry:
Salt:
Nutmeg:
Tobacco:
Ginger:
Almonds:
Alcohol:
Raisin:
Floral:
Bonfire Smoke:
Apple:
Cinnamon:
Leather:
Cake:
Coconut:
Seaweed:
Pear:
Plum:
Blackberry:
Hazelnut:
Peach:
Clove:
Strawberry:
Grape:
Iodine:
Pineapple:
Lemon:
Walnut:
Date:
Mint:
Lemon Peel:
Banana:
Green Apple:
Ham:
Grapefruit:
Fig:
Hay:
Medicinal Smoke:
Wheat:
Kiwi:
Cheese:
Tropical Fruit:
Black Currant:
|
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The Whisky
There are quite a number of distillery bottlings from Benriach. The distillery sorts these bottles in different ranges: Classic Speyside, Peated, Wood Finishes, Peated Wood Finishes, Single Cask bottlings and Super Premium.
The distillery character of Benriach would best be described as fruity, floral with honey notes. You almost certainly find at least a small undertone of these notes in every Benriach bottle.
Benriach uses the wood finish quite often and creates a wide spectrum of Whiskies with this. They also combine the sweetness of most finishes with a high peat smoke level. The Peated Wood finish range has a lot of very strong tasting Whiskies in it. Benriach even uses very old Whiskies in their wood finishes. It is not uncommon to see a 20 or 30 year old Benriach in a wood finish.
There are not many independent bottlings of Benriach.
The Production
The yearly production is at about three million litres of alcohol per year. The distillery produces on four stills and produces its own malt. Benriach is a very traditional distillery from the Speyside.
It lies in the Moray region of Scotland, just in the middle of the Speyside region. The water for the production comes from the Burnside Springs.
The Pot Stills
The Pot stills are very pear-shaped, which is not very typical for a Speyside Whisky. Moreover, the neck doesn't have a constricting piece or a reflux bowl. The lyne arm is falling after the bent and the condenser is located outside of the building.
At Benriach distillation takes place in two wash stills (capacity: 16,500 liters) and two spirit stills (capacity: 9,500 liters). Both stills are running for six hours, which is a very slow distillation time. This gives the alcohol time to separate and a fine distillate is obtained. The temperature control of the stills has been automated, but the switchover from the forerun to the heart is still done by the old, manual Forsyths Spirit Safe from 1975.
The Malting
The Benriach produces its own malt. Its not stated if they can supply all of their production output with their malting floors, but you can still experience the malting business when you take a tour through the Benriach distillery. The malting floors had been mothballed for quite some time, but the old equipment was still in good condition to be used again.
Benriach uses both un-peated and peated malt for their Whiskies.
The Mashing
The Mash Tun at Benriach is made of stainless steel with a lid and contains 25,000 liters of mash. 5.8 tons of grist are mixed with water for this purpose and filled into the Mash Tun. The Benriach distillery has four mash cycles, with the third and fourth washes being reused in the next run.
The Fermentation
Benriach has eight wash backs, each of them can be filled with 33,000 liters. The special feature of Benriach is that the fermentation time is extremely long, averaging 100 hours. This long time in the wash back gives the yeast time to form many flavors and after the yeast is dead, more fruity and intense flavors are formed.
The Warehouse
At the Benriach distillery many casks are stored in traditional "dunnage warehouses" with the typical tamped clay floors. However, there are also larger racked warehouses that can accommodate more casks. Benriach uses a variety of casks, ranging from Marsala casks to large sherry casks, bourbon barrels, quarter casks and French wine casks.
In the "vatted program" Benriach malt or spirit is sold to some international distributors for blends. They are not allowed to declare the bottles as Benriach.
The History
The distillery was founded in 1898 by John Duff. He was the owner of the Longmorn Distillery, which was owned by Mr. Duff. In 1900 the distillery had to cease production due to a slow Whisky economy, but the distillery remained partly open. It still produced malt for the Longmorn Distillery. Then in 1965 the Benriach distillery was bought by the Glenlivet Distillery Ltd. and then reopened for good. In 1978 the Distillery changed to Seagrams, who in turn were bought by Pernod Ricard in 2001. During these times the distillery didn't operate at full capacity.
Finally the distillery was freed by an independent consortium called the BenRiach Distillery Company Limited. Now the Company produces their own Whisky under their own flag. Since June 2016 Benriach, Glendronach and Glenglassaugh are part of the Brown-Forman Corporation.
The Visitor Centre
There is no visitor center at the Benriach distillery, but you can still book tours of the distillery on their website. The tour is worth taking, as the distillery is one of the handful of distilleries that still have the full production depth in-house: malting, mashing, fermentation, distillation and maturation.
The Benriach Distillery Company Ltd
By Elgin
Morayshire
IV30 8SJ
Tel: 01343-862888
Email: info@benriachdistillery.co.uk
User Notes about the Distillery
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