Benrinnes
At the foot of the hill Ben Rinnes lies the Benrinnes distillery. The distillery was built by Peter Mackenzie in 1826.
| Information about the Distillery | |
|---|---|
| Scotland, Speyside | |
| -3.236863 57.441863 | |
| Active | |
| Diageo | |
|
2 x 20,943 l
Normal
|
|
|
2 x 5,243 l
Normal
|
|
|
2 x 7,099 l
Normal
|
|
|
8 x 41,500 l
|
|
| 9 t | |
| 1834 | |
| 2,500,000 l |
| Average tasting notes Tasting notes |
i
|
|
|---|---|---|
|
Nosing
Sweet:
Fruit:
Spices:
Sherry:
Zitrus:
Oak:
Nuts:
Herbs:
Malt:
Vanilla:
Honey:
Peat Smoke:
Caramel:
Heather:
Floral:
Dried Fruit:
Lemon:
Orange:
Raisin:
Berries:
Oil:
Pepper:
Lime:
Banana:
Hay:
Chocolate:
Blackberry:
Plum:
Alcohol:
Cinnamon:
Pineapple:
Peach:
Leather:
Barley:
Apple:
Cherry:
Herb:
Clove:
Pear:
Chili:
Kiwi:
Fig:
Almonds:
Grapefruit:
Nutmeg:
Cake:
Tropical Fruit:
Wheat:
Coffee:
Grass:
Maritime Notes:
Black Currant:
Seaweed:
Hazelnut:
Date:
Green Apple:
Grape:
Salt:
Mint:
Rye:
Ginger:
Tasting
Sweet:
Spices:
Oak:
Fruit:
Sherry:
Chocolate:
Herb:
Nuts:
Caramel:
Malt:
Honey:
Oil:
Zitrus:
Dark Chocolate:
Peat Smoke:
Pepper:
Raisin:
Vanilla:
Dried Fruit:
Coffee:
Herbs:
Orange:
Chili:
Ginger:
Apple:
Plum:
Banana:
Pear:
Grape:
Cinnamon:
Berries:
Lemon:
Nutmeg:
Heather:
Date:
Floral:
Barley:
Cake:
Maritime Notes:
Salt:
Tobacco:
Melon:
Wheat:
Peach:
Fig:
Kiwi:
Leather:
Blackberry:
Almonds:
Alcohol:
Hazelnut:
Clove:
Tropical Fruit:
Lemon Peel:
Grass:
Walnut:
Medicinal Smoke:
Coconut:
Seaweed:
Cherry:
Pineapple:
Finish
Oak:
Sweet:
Spices:
Sherry:
Herb:
Fruit:
Malt:
Dark Chocolate:
Nuts:
Peat Smoke:
Pepper:
Chocolate:
Coffee:
Zitrus:
Honey:
Caramel:
Oil:
Herbs:
Vanilla:
Chili:
Leather:
Nutmeg:
Raisin:
Heather:
Almonds:
Orange:
Seaweed:
Date:
Dried Fruit:
Maritime Notes:
Apple:
Hay:
Barley:
Medicinal Smoke:
Green Apple:
Wheat:
Tobacco:
Fig:
Floral:
Coconut:
Ginger:
Walnut:
Pear:
Grape:
Anis:
Cake:
Alcohol:
Cinnamon:
Peach:
Plum:
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The Whisky
There has been only one official bottling of the Benrinnes distillery. The official bottling is more or less the 15 year old Flora and Fauna edition. Due to this lack of Whiskys it is hard to tell the exact distillery character of the Whisky. It is definitely a lighter Speyside Whisky. It is now even harder to tell the distillery character as the distillery changed its distillation process in 2007.
There is a substantial number of independent bottling of the Benrinnes distillery. Most of them are rather light and floral with a few spicy and hot exceptions.
The majority of the Whisky distilled at Benrinnes goes to the Blend industry. They are being used in Johnnie Walker and J&B Blended Whiskys.
The Production
The output of the distillery increased a lot with the production change and it is now at about 2.5 million liters per year and was at about 1.9 before the change. The Benrinnes distillery used to produce in a rather complicated and unique triple distillation process. Then in 2007 the distillery abandoned this process and switched to a double distilling process. But Benrinnes kept its four spirit stills.
The water for the Scotch comes from the Rowan Tree Burn, the Scurran Burn and the Benrinnes Spring.
The Pot Stills
Benrinnes used to have two wash stills with ca. 21,000 liters volume, two intermediate stills with ca. 5,000 liter volume and two spirit stills with about 7,000 liter volume. Today they use the small intermediate stills as spirit stills. All the stills are very pear shaped and have little reflux in the neck. The lyne arm is falling after the bent, resulting in even less reflux. The condenser still works with worm tubs. The specialty of the Benrinnes is that the wash still is more than double the size of the spirit stills.
The Malting
The Benrinnes distillery used to be a farming distillery. But in 1955 the malting floors were replaced by a Saladin box. This was also the time when the farming at Benrinnes ceased. Later in 1984 the Saladin box was also decommissioned and malt was bought from the United Distillers maltings instead.
The Warehouse
The warehouses are not as flat as you know them from other distilleries. But they are also heavy stone bricked buildings. This lets the Whisky mature in a slowly way to become a good Scotch.
History
The distillery was built by Peter Mackenzie in 1826. It lies at the bottom of the Ben Rinnes hill. Three years after the founding the distillery was destroyed by a flood. A few years later it was rebuilt by John Innes. It was renamed Lyne of Ruthrie. Later the distillery went bankrupt and was sold to William Smith who named it back to Benrinnes. In 1896 the distillery was destroyed again. But this time it burned down. In the 1950s it was rebuilt and renovated by the John Dewar & Sons company, who ended the farming at Benrinnes and closed the malting floors. In 2007 the triple distillation process was shut down and all the small stills were used as spirit stills. Today the distillery is owned by Diageo and produces mostly for the blend industry.
The Visitor Center
Benrinnes is an industrial complex and doesn't have a visitor center.
Benrinnes Distillery
Aberlour
Moray
AB38 9NN
Tel: +44 (0)1340-871215
User Notes about the Distillery
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