Ben Nevis 15 Years Old Signatory Vintage Decanter Collection Cask 2689 43% 1993

Professional reviews

Serge Valentin (87)

I really dislike these silly, evaporation prone decanters I’m afraid to say. The number of bottles at 43% would suggest some kind of butt I suppose, let’s see. Colour: straw. Nose: we’re not too far from these 1996s with this rather elegant nose of lemon peel, soft waxes, mineral oils, bailed straw, olive oil and lighter medical notes of crushed aspirin. Some hessian sack cloth too. Beautiful, charismatic distillate. Even if the 43% does feel a tad lacking at times. In time there’s some lovely notes of fresh grapefruit and lemon. Mouth: soft delivery all on clean and crisp cereals, a soft buttery texture, fragrant notes of heather, moss, freshly chopped herbs, more olive oil and quite a few freshly baked breads. A tad on the gentle side but it’s pretty impeccable distillate. Finish: good length and getting increasingly grassy, nicely bitter, some peppery bite, chalky minerals and more cereal. Comments: It’s odd how it took the whisky world so long to wake up to Ben Nevis. I’m sure this funny wee bottling would have gone pretty far under the radar at the time of release. At cask strength I’m sure we would have been comfortably approaching 90 point

BOW (86)