Ben Nevis

Managing expectations is part and parcel of being a current day whisky enthusiast. Along with inevitable disappointment (missing out on a ballot, not possessing the fastest check out finger in the west), there’s also the hype train - which seems to continually leave the station week after week with the advent of a new release. In part, this is obviously a misrepresentation - folks deliberately talking up, or scoring highly bottles they’ve already acquired in the hope of generating a higher eventual sale price (Whiskybase previously a mainstay in my own expectation management system is rapidly becoming a catalogue of releases….and propaganda). But then, there’s good old fashioned peer recommendation, which when presented without external bias is still one of the best methods for identifying a gem beyond tasting it yourself.

This weekend’s London Whisky Show presented attendees with a glimpse of whisky’s future – a future that still seems in some quarters inherently grounded in the past. Well-known players rolled out their long-established core ranges, steeped in history and vague suggestions of tradition, whilst new entrants presented attendees with an alternative direction for the category. Gone are the days when show-goers would fawn over big brands and their largest age-statement bottlings (though that’s still certainly a ‘thing’). The wealth of first time IB exhibitors and new distilleries offered a showcase of the whisky future that’s yet to come – and it was around these stands that the buzz and interest was most palpable.

Time for some sherry influence, and this 19 year old Ben Nevis is has a name which implies a whole lot of sherry. Filled in December 1997 this has spent its entire life maturing in an refill oloroso sherry butt. Deep, Rich & Dried Fruits profile.

When writing about whisky, there are times when aromas and flavours are challengingly stubborn to try to describe. They might be a little unformed and unfocussed, they might straddle two or more different aromas and flavours – making honing in tricky. Or they might simply just be ‘funky’. There are a few distillates which are often described as possessing a ‘funk’ about them. In my view, the word is bandied around all too often – usually when  the writer is having an moment of inability to adequately describe something. Nevertheless, ‘funk’ can have meaning when defined in context.

There’s been a fair few Boutique-y batches of enthusiast favourite Ben Nevis over the years – we’re now all the way up to Batch 10 – the oldest release from this distillery by the bottler. The release consists of 558 bottles at 48% and with a sticker price of £169.95 from Master of Malt.

The UV activated ink on this Ben Nevis highlights the link between Jerez in Spain and Scotland - which means of course we’re talking about sherry casks. Whilst some would likely disagree, I’ve always felt that unchecked sherry influence has a huge potential to run roughshod over the top of a spirit, reducing its complexity and lessening its nuances. In effect – delivering something which tastes primarily of boozy sherry. This Whisky Show exclusive acknowledges the differences that 1^st fill and refill sherry casks have on a maturing spirit, and opts for a more the restrained refill approach.

It possessed a texture best compared to an amalgamation of fried squid rings and a non-stick bathmat - I’d clearly made the most terrible lunchtime mistake. But let’s start this back at the beginning….Many moons ago I sat down in a restaurant in Seattle for what would be my first Korean Barbeque experience. A rather neat dining concept where the food is provided raw and the customers then get cook it on small grills built into their tables. Fun. And a clever method for getting people to unwittingly pay a premium for little more than an ingredient delivery service and a readily available supply of propane. But, novelty or not, to this day, this meal is still, probably, my biggest ever textural blunder.