Benromach 10 yo 2010/2021 (58.4%, OB for The Whisky Exchange, cask #390, 1st fill barrel, 211 bottles)
Colour: bright straw. Nose: creamy with a lot of linseed oil, bailed hay, straw, a very delicate thread of peat smoke and a few animal furs, fatty olive oil notes and herb butter. A wonderful sense of texture and a very clever, subtle use of peat I think. With water: still nicely oily, but takes on a medical edge with some tiger balm as well as some more direct, dried herbal notes. Also a nice touch of gorse flower and sandalwood. Mouth: a little sharp, rugged and peppery, more impressions of straw and hay, some sooty notes, roasted vegetables, fennel, pumpkinseed oil, graphite and clay. Mineral, oily, fatty and indeed: ‘full bodied’. With water: excellent mouthfeel now, all on waxes, lemon rinds, olive oil, wee sooty impressions, carbon paper and a few sweeter hints of breakfast cereals and camphor. Finish: medium, a little sappy with some green peppery notes, more dried herbs and more grassy olive oil notes. Comments: some kind of delicious no man’s land between modernity and old style. It’s a spirit very much about texture, which probably explains why I love it. 
SGP: 464 - 88 points. 

Benromach 11 yo 2008/2020 (56.9%, OB for UK market, cask #851, 1st fill sherry hogshead, 81 bottles)
Only 81 bottles?! Did they bottle the whole cask? Colour: pale amber. Nose: oh! This is really close to some of the massive sherry casks that G&M seemed to use a lot from the mid-50s to the 1980s. Which is to say full of game meats, natural tars, long aged pinot noir, deeply earthy and mulchy notes, black pepper and gun oil. Really, a style you don’t expect to encounter in modern whiskies these days. Goes on with some love smoked teas, lots of camphor and hessian and things that bring to mind walnuts and balsamic. Love it! With water: really gets leathery and salty now, on game salami, umami seasonings, salted liquorice and hessian. Mouth: intensely earthy, mushroomy and full-on old pipe tobacco and cigar humidor, also extremely peppery in a way which really adds a lot of warmth to the experience. Leaf mulch, ink, Iberico ham, were hints of truffle and Maggi! With water: waxes, cigars, game meats, bitter dark chocolate with smoked sea salt and rather extreme herbal bitter and umami seasoning notes! Old artichoke liqueur and pickled walnuts! Finish: long, wonderfully peppery, gently tarry, a little pure peat smoke and more superbly gamey and leathery old sherry vibes. Comments: where did they get this sherry cask from? A small, humble, totally overlooked demonstration that you can still make ‘old style’ whisky, provided you make the correct distillate and put it in the right type of cask. I adore this wee bottling, but you have you enjoy this very particular and quite extreme sherry cask profile that is dominated by leathery and tobacco characteristics. 
SGP: 473 - 90 points.

Benromach 19 yo 2002/2022 (56.2%, OB for Kensington Wine Market, cask #875, 1st fill barrel, 196 bottles)
Several casks from these early 2000s vintages have been pretty stellar recently, so we have reasonably high expectations here… Colour: gold. Nose: yup, a gorgeous and layered cocktail of waxes, green and yellow fruits, dessert wines, resinous fir woods and then stunning citrus liqueurs, crystallised citrus rinds and dried exotic fruits. It’s this same impression of texture that the other two have, but here it’s only magnified by age in the most gorgeous and impressive way. With water: gah! It’s getting even better, more pristine, more peaty, more saline and waxier. Starting to resemble some very old Longrow or Springbank almost. Also, some stunning notes of sandalwood, crushed sea shells and aspirin. Mouth: stunning mix of waxes, dry, salty peat smoke, herbal teas, ointments, camphor and mineral oils. Like a lot of these old school profiles, it makes you think of great, aged dry white wines. It also makes me think of some brilliant old Glenlochy funnily enough. Given time it also becomes a bit more honeyed. With water: amazing, a perfectly cohesive, singular profile. A stunning balance of waxes, dry peat smoke, camphor, medicines and a beautifully taut mineral profile. Finish: long, bone-dry, superbly mineral and waxy. Alighting more on Clynelish finally I’d say. Comments: I just realised I referenced several old legendary distillery styles in a single tasting note, which probably says everything you really need to know about this ‘modern’ whisky. I also got a bit carried away and gave the word ‘stunning’ a pretty generous airing.   What witchcraft was afoot at Benromach in 2002? 
SGP: 564 - 92 points.