Ben Nevis 18yo
Ingelred Release (Blackadder) Collab Review | 52.4% ABV
I have a problem with Ben Nevis.
It’s not the fault of the distillery or even the whisky itself. And to be honest, for the most part it isn’t really a problem. In fact it only becomes so when I foolishly decide I want to review one.
You see my problem is that as far as Ben Nevis is concerned, my palate has been ruined. Ruined by an excess of sensory pleasure.
It all stems from September 2022 and the London Whisky Show. For it was there that I had my first encounter (followed, I confess, by several more over the following 48hrs) with a Ben Nevis whisky so profoundly exquisite that it will forever skew my perspective on any other dram from the same distillery.
That whisky effectively raised my bar of expectation (or at least aspiration) impossibly high. Now all Ben Nevis whisky will forever be measured against an unattainable standard that will be impossible to match – let alone exceed.
The whisky in question was a 31 year old bottled by Hunter Laing as part of their Old & Rare Platinum Selection. Weighing in at a remarkable 62.1% ABV and matured entirely in an Oloroso Butt, it was one of those whiskies that becomes something of a defining moment in one’s whisky journey. It blew my mind.
It was everything I love in a good whisky and it helped define what that actually is. It was full of gloriously earthy, meaty, organic flavours. It was savoury and sweet all at the same time. It was chewy and gnarly and grubby and unctuous. I tasted notes of compost and damp vegetation of the wet-hedgerow-in-October variety. There was oxtail and cured meats. Dark brown malt loaf and muscovado sugar, clove and much, much more. It coated the mouth beautifully and it lingered lovingly. I was in heaven.
Looking at the tasting notes in the shiny wooden box it was presented in, I wasn’t surprised to see “beef consommé” listed . Not something I’d ever seen as a tasting note before but it made complete sense.
Over the remainder of the show I revisited this whisky several times. In fact I spent so much time there that the gentleman who was pouring it has now become a firm friend (whisky does that). And the memory created in those moments by that dram has become deeply embedded in my whisky mind. It’s filed somewhere in the “life-changing” section.
All this is to say, that any Ben Nevis that has followed – no matter how good it may be – has inevitably fallen victim to the curse of being compared to the incomparable. It’s human to do it and of course utter folly. But do it we do. At least I do.
So with this review I’ve made herculean efforts to avoid that comparison. I’ve spent way longer writing it than I’d planned, simply because I’ve had to keep checking myself and editing sections when I found myself straying.
As a result I’ve meandered my way through more than half the bottle while writing this, shared it with friends and got to know it that much better. And it’s been a good ride. This whisky and I have become firm friends as we’ve become better acquainted.
Review 1/2 - Nick
Ben Nevis 18yo, Ingelred bottling, December 2003 vintage, April 2022 bottling, single cask 385, 180 bottles, 52.4% ABV
US$180 paid (£140) likely available on secondary only
I hope that I’ve achieved my goal and that I’m giving this whisky a fair shout on the basis of its merits alone. I think I have, and I feel that I managed to park the spectre of that outrageously irresistible 31 year old somewhere it could exert no meaningful influence.
However, to make sure we get a full and fair assessment we have another perspective to keep things honest and true. And in this case it is none other than Tyree who has come up with the goods. By happy coincidence he was exploring the very same dram at the same time on the other side of the planet. So clearly fate determined that we should collaborate on this.
Read on for our double-barreled perspective on this particular dram.
Score: 6/10
Good stuff.
TL;DR
A character that repays time and attention
Nose
Wet hay and a touch of lemon zest and pineapple. Beeswax and malted toffee. There’s also something indistinctively vegetal. Maybe brambles or nettles or the collective scents of a herb garden wafted on the breeze.
After a while there’s caramel, hazelnut, oak and cayenne. And the green notes come back in the form of brackish marsh water.
Palate
There’s a little bit of citrus at the start that’s suggestive of lemon which is taken over pretty quickly by a clear and creamy pineapple note. It’s a pineapple that’s been left to hang low over a fire so the sugars have caramelised and charred on the outside. If you’ve had it you know what I mean – and if you haven’t you should.
There’s salted caramel lurking beneath that’s been dusted with black pepper. Dry soil for a more earthy note and some cut grass. Jalapeno honey, oak and a little char and glazed ham. There’s a subtle malt note that runs through it and on the somewhat dry finish I get ginger. Maybe ginger biscuit.
The black pepper is resurgent at the end and brings with it the hint of black liquorice. Which mixed with that ginger biscuit, carries into a really interesting, lingering finale.
The Dregs
For me this was not love at first pour. Admittedly, it was immediately interesting and characterful, but pre-review it almost inevitably lost out in the battle of unreasonable expectations where the rules of engagement were defined by an altogether exceptional whisky.
Over time things evolved. As the whisky made its way down the bottle my perspective mellowed and more layers and flavours emerged and asserted themselves.
This dram has grown on me considerably and established its own position in my mind without reference to any other. It’s there on its own merits and not as some kind of substitute for any dram of memory.
In the USA this retailed, in NYC anyway, for $180 (£140). These days that represents a very reasonable price for a whisky of this age. And the truth is you don’t see a lot of Ben Nevis on the shelves so it was kind of irresistible.
Maybe that will change going forward. With the rules changing on what can and cannot be called Japanese whisky, they’re going to have to find another home for all that Ben Nevis distillate that’s been going into some of the Nikka releases, or at least relabel them.
Perhaps that will work in our favour and we’ll see more IBs and perhaps even distillery bottlings will make their way here in the future. If that happens then I rather suspect some of them will end up on my shelves.
Score: 6/10 NF
Review 2/2 - Tyree
Ben Nevis 18yo, Ingelred bottling, December 2003 vintage, April 2022 bottling, single cask 385, 180 bottles, 52.4% ABV
US$180 paid (£140) likely available on secondary only
Score: 7/10
Very good indeed.
TL;DR
Despite a touch heavy on cask, and pricey here, I’d have another
Nose
Tropical fruits and desserts up front; baked pineapple rings, a bag of Allen's mixed snakes (it's an Aussie thing), light musk stick lollies, and then some white wine aromatics a la sauvignon blanc with passionfruit and a little fresh armpit sweat, plus flashes of a good gewurztraminer a la lychee and rose (ionones) accented by trace menthol.
This is all set to a very 4/4 tempo of vanillins, coconutty lactones, almond slivers, baking spices, slight milk bottle lollies and something akin to marscapone.
There's a fascinating phenomenon at play though; the tropical aspects seem to ebb and flow in cyclic intensity, while the gaps left between the quasi-sinusoidal peaks are filled by some fatty acids/fusel oils tails character indicative of the Ben Nevis distillate. It sounds dicey, but I promise it absolutely works!
Palate
Delightful. Practically everything from the nose can be found in fleeting glances and nervous eruptions through the palate; more tropical fruits, ester laden confections, white wines and American oak sweetness.
The star of the show though is a beautiful quasi-citric acidity that induces something like a synaesthesic effervescence. The oak certainly doesn't shrink from prominence (in fact the baking spice through retronasal swells pleasingly in the melange) but the distillate still forges ahead, with even lighter senses of those fatty/feinty Ben Nevis accents adding complexity. Some more of the minty mentholic aspects peak up through retronasal too, which adds to the finish.
The Dregs
An excellent bottling. Showing a bit less of the distillate and a little more of the bourbon cask handling compared to some? Yes. Is the oak overdone? Not quite, or not to my palate at least.
Prominent, but integrated and supporting the sweet, fruity ester/white wine aspects from a hedonic perspective. This wasn't a cheap bottling here in Aus, but if I had the option to buy another for the same price, I certainly would.
Score: 7/10 TK
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. NF
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