BenRiach 10 Year Old Curiositas (40%, OB, 2014)
- Category: Speyside single malt scotch whisky
- Origin: BenRiach Distillery
- Bottling: BenRiach Distillery Company Limited.
- ABV: 40%
- Cost: £37.33
What they say
Curiositas uses a heavily peated malted barley as the cereal varietal to produce a unique, fresh, peated expression.
This rare peated single malt, from the Heartland of Speyside, has wonderful overtones of peat reek, combined cleverly with a background of fruity, floral, heathery notes and an appealing presence of oak wood in the finish. Traditionalists believe that peated malts achieve optimum balance of peat-bittersweet and oak infusion after 10 years of maturation.
In fact peated BenRiach is a return to the original Speyside character and flavour of malts typical of the nineteenth century. Curiositas is a distinctive and welcome addition to the Speyside scene – this is a dram to be savoured with a dash of water.
Official tasting notes:
- NOSE An explosion of aromatic peat reek, with fragrant hints of honey, fruit and mellow oak.
- COLOUR Rich amber
- TASTE An avalanche of peat, followed by an extravagant and complex mix of fruit, heather, nuts, oak wood and spices.
What I say
Curiositas is a 10 year old, peated release from the BenRiach distillery in what they call the ‘classic Speyside style’.
My tasting notes:
- Appearance: Pale gold
- Nose: Peaty and sweet
- Taste: Icing sugar sweetness, malty cereal barley, sour mash/mashtun and earthy and heathery peat
- Finish: Long, slightly drying, sweet and a little sour/bitter peaty heather again
Overall
A distinct malt with great depth and a bittersweet balance. From the outset something tasted a little too sweet and floral with this peated whisky to convince us it was from Islay. Adam hit the nail on the head by finally declaring it a peated speysider!
Score 82/100
Shop for BenRiach 10 year old Curiositas (opens Master of Malt)
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