BenRiach Distillery, Scotland     founded: 1898 | active
For more detailed mapping of the distilleries in the area from our whisky map page, use this link.

Plenty going on here, smells like the world's weirdest pizza restaurant with biltong, chanterelles, Frazzles, smoked salmon and haddock, seaweed and leather all on the menu. There are memories of the Jorvik Museum, nasty sea water, damp swamps, a used griddle and dunking your head in the river – we all hold those dear. TCP, formaldehyde, antiseptic, mothballs, oily rusty rags and mahogany wood varnish all suggest a chemical note while cherries, kirsh and fruit salad sweets take us to a sweeter place.

The classic spent campfire is very clear with smoky cheese, dry roasted peanuts, burnt oranges, muscavado sugar and a peat burn with it's own deceased otter collection as supporting evidence. Christmas sweet stuff also pervades – dates, pickled walnuts, barley sugar, stewed sultanas, candied cashews, black olives, banoffee pie, cumin and cloves. Tomato purée and sage are the miscellaneous few plus someone who worryingly thinks they know what paraffin tastes like.

The finish is long, long, long – OK Steph!? With sweet Werther's Originals, burnt caramel and popping candy, and it's spicy - pepper, paprika and green herbs. Some people were gargling dettol, others enjoyed crispy baked potatoes, tobacco and cactus – we're a diverse bunch.

~£32 (70cl)

BenRiach Importanticus Fumosus - official link   |   http://www.benriachdistillery.co.uk/BenRiachI

We've always scored out of 10 in our group (see number in red box, below), with scores regularly given across that spectrum. The value out of 100 below is adjusted to the scale most commonly used for whisky reviews, to allow for better comparison.

82 / 100