The Scotsman Whisky Club: Tasting BenRiach Malting Season 4

The Scotsman

Stewart Buchanan and food and drink editor Rosalind Erskine taste BenRiach malting season 4 whisky - the final in the series.

Transcript

00:00okay this is our beautiful fourth edition of malting season absolutely amazing to see this

00:09what a what a project of passion 10 years old i can't believe it's 10 years ago that we first

00:14started this project over 10 years and this is the final of the um the series ultimately

00:21getting into that 10 year old age statement and it's a beautiful combination american old barrels

00:2627 barrels only and four all and also casks and beautiful harvest gold color and what i love

00:34even in the glass is that beautiful almost syrupy viscosity even to the eye straight away you can

00:41just see how it holds the glass it's not an oily spirit but it's almost a little spiricy spirited

00:46viscosity and we want this emphasis to be on the barley and it truly just sings with barley it's

00:53sweet it's got the almost creme caramels it's like honeycomb notes moving into little almonds

00:59and biscotti biscuits and always that dna of space side absolutely beautiful nose

01:08exactly how the bernier should be and an old school bernier

01:16same thing on the perfect strength actually the strength's just sitting nicely

01:20where are we 47.9 a bb so take it in a little bit just to take some of that heat off and

01:28almost dry forward that beautiful sweetness there is more apricot in the palate more peachy in the

01:33palate all these soft fleshy fruits but always always

01:41underpinned by that that beautiful sweet barley which if you walk through the warehouses

01:46of just our distillery itself is flooding with these notes so absolutely beautiful fourth edition

01:5010 years old released this week and for anyone that doesn't know can you tell us a sort of very

01:58brief history of the malting season and the floor maltings here sure well but we have reopened in 2004

02:05and it was amazing when i first walked through the floor maltings uh opened the doors and it was as

02:13as if the guys had just gone away for lunch the floor maltings itself had worked for a full 100

02:17year 1898 to 1998 and then the malting ceased but all the machinery was still in good condition

02:25so as much as we didn't do it straight away it took us the best part of uh well that would have been

02:30eight years to finally get into uh the formal and get that operational it was always a project of

02:37passion it would be sacrilege if we did not operate that floor maltings once again so even though it

02:42was only a small block eight weeks per year it was one day production and not even 100 barrels filled

02:48off of each of the annual badges the seasonal batches um for me it really does deliver something

02:55very different and almost that old school space and i think that's what we're trying to protect

02:59you know that old school floor malted barley in some cases actually letting people the new generation

03:06the whiskey drinkers realize what a old school space it is and protecting these whiskies uh for

03:11the future um and it would be a shame if they did disappear off the of the whiskey map so yeah it's a

03:19small batch and there are changes in barley each time the barley variety isn't particularly focused it's

03:26more how rachel will bring that together in the combination of casks so patch one two three and the

03:31four always changing that cask makeup slightly almost enhancing the flavor drive that the floor maltings produce

03:39batch one bit spicier huskiness of the bottom batch two a bit more bourbon barrels for example

03:44giving us the more sweeter side of the barman batch three is a combination of both the the the dry huskiness

03:50and the sweet and then batch four the final 10 year old i think we're seeing a great elevation of fruit

03:58throughout and a very different fruit drive so yeah very different character and what's happening to

04:05the floor maltings now like obviously this is the last in the series have you done another

04:09they we have done a few batches since and there still are cast into your house so as much as we're

04:14uh ending the this this the additions as it is now that are cast the warehouse now what rachel will

04:22plan with those i don't know it's always something in the future so this it's the last of the series

04:28but maybe not the last of the the mall floor maltings itself that's a long-term project from

04:34the downline and we have got some work to do at the mall things you know it did you know it's an old

04:40building and it was needing some repair so we've got some elevator shaft work being done new staircases etc the

04:46floor would need to be totally redone again to do another batch there so and yeah we'll see what

04:53happens as far as the the future of the mall things but at least we've got some here for the city

04:58yes well thank you very much always a pleasure

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