Ben Nevis 1996/2019 Caora N°6
Style Single Malt Scotch Country Scotland Region Highland Distillery Ben Nevis Bottler Caora Distillation Date October 1996 Bottling Date February 2019 Age 22 years Maturation Refill Hogshead Cask 1381 Alcohol 50.7%vol Volume 50cl Outturn 321 Bottles Ben Nevis 22 yo 1996/2019 (50.7%, Caora, cask #1381, refill hogshead, 321 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: not as immediately lush as the Thompson Bros bottling, this is leaner, more chiseled, grassier and more on lime, kiwi, crisp sauvignon blanc, passion fruit and pin-sharp cereal notes. Lemons and limes in green tea, bandages, mineral oils and stone fruits with fragrant wild flowers on top. Another terrific 96 Ben Nevis! With water: wonderfully sooty, oily, waxy, estery, lightly tropical and mineral. Mouth: fabulously oily and textural delivery! Mint julep, olive oil, mineral salts and then various exotic fruits - both ripe and in syrup form. Verbena, citrus juices, herbal liqueurs, subtle waxy notes and some rather flinty and chalky mineral aspects. With water: superb now! Really perfect with water, leaps like one of Jon Beach’s personal racing salmon. There’s a richness and a fatness to it that comes with dilution and that mineral/waxy side recalls early 80s Clynelish in some ways. More floral, chalky, pollens, waxes, salted mead and camphor. Finish: long, fatty, oily, greasy, mechanical, waxy, oily hessian rags and various shades of wildflower. Some bitter citrus piths in the aftertaste. Comments: Yet another really superb 96 Ben Nevis that takes water like a champ. You can almost buy these bottlings blind. This one is worth seeking out I’d say.
91 points.