Professional reviews
BOW (88.50)
Serge Valentin (89)
Colour: pale white wine. Nose: here’s a pure and direct version again, with plenty of soot and ashes, mustard, walnuts, paint, green apple, and fresh mushrooms. With water: citron, in the style of early 1980s Clynelish. Mouth (neat): what a clever selection! Once again, this is a very pure BN, but with hints of nectarines and apricots that make it feel slightly more civilised. Otherwise, it’s classic, but also with a touch of mint alongside waxes, charcoals, tars, and maritime elements. With water: just perfect. Ashes and vine peaches. Finish: long, perfectly balanced, almost refreshing. Comments: we absolutely love this one. It’s flirting with 90, clearly. That said, we didn’t find the gamey notes that were announced (S., that’s not funny).
Malt Fascination (86)
And Ben Nevis as the second one. A distillery with several faces that has been through some ups and downs through the years. Massively fruity in one era and insanely funky in the next. It seems to work best when those two aspects meet in the middle!
Sniff:
This has a dirty nose, and it’s glorious. Leather, vegemite, yeast, engine grease. Somehow pickled walnuts. A bit of sweetness from overripe fruits.
Sip:
The palate continues with the funky notes. It’s rather old fashioned and fatty, not entirely unlike Benromach. The ABV isn’t overly noticeable after a little while, and the fruity sweetness takes over. Quite juicy, but not without some yeasty vegemite-esque notes.
Swallow:
The finish veers right back to the nose and the rather singular focus on the ‘dirty’ notes. It’s rather fatty again, but turns slightly more dry after some seconds.
It’s a rather unique dram with the level of dirtiness, funkiness, whatever you want to call it. For me, it’s really interesting but a tad one directional. If you’re into this Ben Nevis style, you’ll love this, but if you want the fruity one, this might not be it.
