The Benromach 50 Years Old by Gordon & MacPhail is a delicious single malt, touched by love, passion and the human hand
Turning 50, as I’ve been told, is a good thing. It isn’t the end of youth, nor is it time to feel old. In an ideal world, 50 is an age nurtured by joy, difficulties and love. It is an event, an occasion.
It is also a remarkable age for a remarkable whisky like Benromach. The Speyside distillery from Forres, Scotland, just released a rare 50 Years Old single malt, bottled in precious hand-blown Glasstorm decanters with exquisite, battuto-style detailing.
Aged exclusively in sherry casks and bottled at an ABV of 54.6 per cent, the whisky promises to deliver a dizzying chain of sensations, reminiscent of a lost Speyside style you won’t find in today’s bottles. Give it a whiff and you’ll get strawberry and lemon sorbet. Add a splash of water, and it will release notes of stewed fruits and dates, with a lingering finish of cracked black pepper and whisper of smoke.
At S$31,500, the price tag is equally dizzying, but you pay for what you get. The Benromach brand, founded in 1898 and rescued from extinction in 1993, is desirable for all the right reasons. Gordon & MacPhail, its knight in shining armour, has for the past 128 years established a reputation as one of the finest independent bottlers—pick up any bottle with its name on it, and you know you’re going to have a good time—and in the years to come, will focus solely on the distilleries it owns. A solid reputation, coupled with Benromach’s personality and craftsman’s precision? It’s no wonder the distillery has developed a loyal following.
It is also the human touch that does the trick for Benromach, besides water, yeast and barley, of course. “Everything is done by hand, sight, sound and heart,” says Stephen Rankin, Gordon & MacPhail’s director of prestige and fourth-generation member of the Urquhart family, who owns the business. “That’s the old-fashioned charm of Benromach. It is down to the people, and it’s precise on their terms. Instead of leaving the judgement to the computer, we allow a bit of our own personality in.”
Even the casks are stored in traditional dunnage warehousing, where the earthen floors keep the casks consistently cool. With the air so thick with humidity and casks packed tightly atop each other, the whisky is allowed to age gracefully, with all the kinks and rough edges ready to go.
As you probably already know, most of the flavour develops from time spent in the barrel, and unlike a previous 50 Years Old release taken from older stock, this expression (which was filled on 13 December 1972) spent the last three decades under the care of Gordon & MacPhail—nothing more, nothing less. Nurture eclipses nature in the creation of flavour, if you can believe it.
“We have a saying, and that is to do right by the whisky,” continues Rankin. “If the whisky is ready, drink it. If it looks like it should mature longer, then don’t rush it. Patience is a virtue. The reason we are able to enjoy single malts that are 40, 50 or 60, is because of patience. The commitment to doing it the right way, by being a slave to the quality of the whisky. See how fresh the 50 is? It doesn’t taste like a 50-year-old whisky. It tastes youthful and young at heart, much like myself.”
The Benromach 50 Years Old is yours for S$31,500 at La Maison Du Whisky (whisky.sg). Only 248 decanters will be available, each expertly hand-blown by Glasstorm, one of Britain’s most exciting glass studios.
