Benrinnes 23 yo 1962/1986 (46%, Cadenhead 'Original Collection')
Must be one of the earliest editions of this series, the humbler sibling of the Authentic Collection that actually sheltered many beautiful whiskies over the years. Colour: straw. Nose: pure and almost monolithic waxiness, along with Barbour grease, hessian cloth, toolboxes and things like dried out make up and hand cream. There's also many notes of resinous old fir woods and hardwoods, cedar and sandalwood too. Very old school and charmingly un-sexy in style. Mouth: paraffin wax, olive oil, dried greengages, tarragon and putty. Strop leather, waxes sandalwood, fir woods again, essentially it is the nose in flavour from really, very consistent. Finish: Long, and I find a lovely tang of something like salty Manzanilla combined with a more dominant medicinal and even ever so slightly peaty side. Comments: the nose was rather simple and boisterous, but the palate and the finish just never stopped picking up steam - the aftertaste is really quite stunning. A great benchmark example of old style 'charismatic' distillate.
SGP: 473 - 91 points.

Benrinnes 25 yo 1971/1997 (46.9%, Cadenhead Authentic Collection, sherrywood matured)
Colour: reddish black coffee. Nose: hardwood resins, trifle soaked in kirsch, walnut oil and mushroom powder. Really gathers a lot of savoury and umami vibes with time, also going into things like date loaf, miso paste, bitter dark chocolate and very slight gamey notes that also bring to mind very mature old Burgundy. An excellent and earthy old style sherry that (so far) doesn't feel too dominating or overcooked. Mouth: very heavy sherry, wonderfully on leather, ink, chocolate sauce with sea salt, pickled walnuts, date molasses and black coffee sweetened with natural tar liqueur. Very thick and heavy but manages, just about, to avoid being too cloying, thanks mainly in part to the many soft dark fruit aspects which feel like they bring some sweeter and fresher elements to the wood and spice notes. Still very mushroomy, mulchy, earthy and umami. Finish: medium and full of herbal bitters, aniseed, cough syrup, salted liquorice and many more walnuts, dried mushrooms and preserved dark fruits. Comments: heavy stuff and probably testing the limits in terms of intensity here and there, but undeniably a profile of sherry that doesn't really exist in whisky anymore. A very excellent drop, you probably just have to be in the mood.
SGP: 471 - 89 points.