Your arguments are exactly why I have started to avoid private labels. There are too many great core range bottlings available with solid reviews. This Signatory Benriach is a typical example of a crappy original maturation covered up with a questionable finishing.
I'm going to try to convince you to think again. The independent sector can produce some of the best and best value whisky's on the market but we have to think carefully before purchasing. This Benriach had all the warning signs of trouble. A 21 year old whisky finished in a fresh sherry butt screams warning sign. It's no good so let's try to salvage something by chucking it in a last chance saloon sherry butt for six months - Fresh (code for actual sherry leakage into the distillate). I buy a lot of great independents but I think hard about what is going on and the price of course. I just purchased a 24 year old Benrinnes single cask refill hogshead for £105 and I'm very confident I will love it. Independent bottlings add a unique spice to our purchases.
@@WhiskyJason1 You can still pick up good value. I just picked up a Benrinnes 24 and a Glen Moray 24 (refill bourbon hoggies) bottled at 50% in the Hunter Laing Old Malt Cask range and they both cost £105. That is a good price by today's standards. Even some of the younger independent bottles can be a bargain when we consider the casks and abv. I absolutely agree that the prices for independently bottled whisky has rocketed but there are still bargains if we choose wisely.
@@welshtoro3256 I know my response is late but I believe that you’re referring to a Hunter Laing bottling of Benrinnes 24yo HL17812? If so I’d like to hear your thoughts on that bottle because I found it to be wonderful. I’m convinced it’s some kind of sherry hogshead. Incredible value in my opinion.
@@David4.14 I think you might be right. I've changed my mind about it as it aged and the bottle level dropped. That's always the tragedy. I'm enjoying it now and it's quite subtle, a quality I enjoy. It was good value as you say but I don't think it tastes 24 years old. The Benrinnes would have to have been in that cask since the 1990's and it's definitely a refill, maybe even several times so. That could mean a cask from the 80's or even, possibly, the 70's. That's what makes me question the sherry influence. Good to hear from a fellow discoverer of bottles like this. Cheers.
Man the Germany/EU market is kinda crazy! I agree with you and this is sort of what Chris from the Good Dram show has been saying for years. What is the point of smashing the original distillary character to nothing with a very wet sherry barrel? I understand very old aged sherried whisky can be very complex and interesting but for the most part I stay away from mid aged sherry bombs. If I want a sherry bomb I get a young one so it won't cost me an arm and a leg. I get a local one that is aged for 26 months and it does me just fine. My top would be Del Bac distillers cut and next would be Aberlour Abunadh. I have never had a bad Abunadh. I also like any Edradour sherry bombs because the spirit is strong enough to show though the sherry. When I think of quality whisky, I don't really think sherry bomb though. I think about quality oak, quality spirit and time in that barrel. I want to taste the Oak, the whisky and the age. I don't really want to be blasted in the face with a fortified wine of some sort.
Visually looks like a great bottle but must be disappointing buying multiple bottles and discovering its not that enjoyable to your palate! I have bought many independent bottling s that I really don't like so I'm more careful these days and I must see good reviews before I will purchase again.Thanks for another great review.
I bet that a lot of the dark and heavily sherried casks now have similar paths of maturation. I think you have to give some credit to Signatory for the transparancy though. Most single casks will only tell you the final cask maturation. Glendronach and Glenallachie are good examples. A lot of their single casks have been re-racked but they only disclose the last cask details. So SV is giving us the whole picture. Cheers J
I don't need to look at the actual bottle to check the color if the label says "20 years in refill casks + 3 months in fresh sherry butt". This very statement should set off all kinds of alarms for me😀 Why on Earth one would "finish" a 20 yo malt whisky for 3 months just to end up with what is basicaly a high alocholic sherry flavoured whisky liquor??? Apparently that 20 yo malt was sub-par to start with so they decided to mask it with "extreme" sherry influence. I would have never touched such a bottle no matter the price. The way I see things it is an abomination of a whisky. In the end it all boils down to supply and demand. If the demand for such a "product" is high enough then who am I to blame Signatory or any other supplier for answering accordingly? At least they had the decency to state all the facts on the label. As for Benriach whisky I haven't tasted any yet. Off the bottles in my stash the first one I'm going to open someday is maybe the 16 yo from 2016, 43%. The rebranded bottlings are expected on our market sometime this year but I can also get some of the old releases at pretty reasonable price, namely the 10 yo 43%, 10 yo Curiositas and 12 yo Sherry Wood. The 12 yo Sherry Wood is still available for 36 euro.
My favorite cask strength sherry whisky has to be the Glenfarclas 105... Aberlour Abunadh runs a close second.
Interesting. I'm the other way round and those differences make the world go round.
two great bottles!
Love your honesty Jason. Can you point me in the direction of a distillery/bottler you find value in? Cheers
Glenallachie, Deanston and Arran
Your arguments are exactly why I have started to avoid private labels. There are too many great core range bottlings available with solid reviews.
This Signatory Benriach is a typical example of a crappy original maturation covered up with a questionable finishing.
I'm going to try to convince you to think again. The independent sector can produce some of the best and best value whisky's on the market but we have to think carefully before purchasing. This Benriach had all the warning signs of trouble. A 21 year old whisky finished in a fresh sherry butt screams warning sign. It's no good so let's try to salvage something by chucking it in a last chance saloon sherry butt for six months - Fresh (code for actual sherry leakage into the distillate). I buy a lot of great independents but I think hard about what is going on and the price of course. I just purchased a 24 year old Benrinnes single cask refill hogshead for £105 and I'm very confident I will love it. Independent bottlings add a unique spice to our purchases.
AGREE - Independent bottlings CAN add a unique spice to our purchases - but they are no longer bargains
@@WhiskyJason1 You can still pick up good value. I just picked up a Benrinnes 24 and a Glen Moray 24 (refill bourbon hoggies) bottled at 50% in the Hunter Laing Old Malt Cask range and they both cost £105. That is a good price by today's standards. Even some of the younger independent bottles can be a bargain when we consider the casks and abv. I absolutely agree that the prices for independently bottled whisky has rocketed but there are still bargains if we choose wisely.
@@welshtoro3256 I know my response is late but I believe that you’re referring to a Hunter Laing bottling of Benrinnes 24yo HL17812? If so I’d like to hear your thoughts on that bottle because I found it to be wonderful. I’m convinced it’s some kind of sherry hogshead. Incredible value in my opinion.
@@David4.14 I think you might be right. I've changed my mind about it as it aged and the bottle level dropped. That's always the tragedy. I'm enjoying it now and it's quite subtle, a quality I enjoy. It was good value as you say but I don't think it tastes 24 years old. The Benrinnes would have to have been in that cask since the 1990's and it's definitely a refill, maybe even several times so. That could mean a cask from the 80's or even, possibly, the 70's. That's what makes me question the sherry influence. Good to hear from a fellow discoverer of bottles like this. Cheers.
Man the Germany/EU market is kinda crazy! I agree with you and this is sort of what Chris from the Good Dram show has been saying for years. What is the point of smashing the original distillary character to nothing with a very wet sherry barrel? I understand very old aged sherried whisky can be very complex and interesting but for the most part I stay away from mid aged sherry bombs. If I want a sherry bomb I get a young one so it won't cost me an arm and a leg. I get a local one that is aged for 26 months and it does me just fine. My top would be Del Bac distillers cut and next would be Aberlour Abunadh. I have never had a bad Abunadh. I also like any Edradour sherry bombs because the spirit is strong enough to show though the sherry.
When I think of quality whisky, I don't really think sherry bomb though. I think about quality oak, quality spirit and time in that barrel. I want to taste the Oak, the whisky and the age. I don't really want to be blasted in the face with a fortified wine of some sort.
Agreed on all counts. That's the thing with sherry bombs, as Chris says, they have no distillery character and most of them taste the same.
I want to taste the oak, the whisky and the age - AMEN!!!
You should rename your channel to "no bullsh**t whisky"....nice breakdown of what's going on at the moment with these sherry-soup whiskies....
Cheers!
Thanks Sascha!!
Visually looks like a great bottle but must be disappointing buying multiple bottles and discovering its not that enjoyable to your palate! I have bought many independent bottling s that I really don't like so I'm more careful these days and I must see good reviews before I will purchase again.Thanks for another great review.
Thanks - but I share the bottles so it is not that frustrating for me
I bet that a lot of the dark and heavily sherried casks now have similar paths of maturation. I think you have to give some credit to Signatory for the transparancy though. Most single casks will only tell you the final cask maturation. Glendronach and Glenallachie are good examples. A lot of their single casks have been re-racked but they only disclose the last cask details. So SV is giving us the whole picture. Cheers J
That is one way of looking at it - SV is giving us a better picture than many others
I don't need to look at the actual bottle to check the color if the label says "20 years in refill casks + 3 months in fresh sherry butt". This very statement should set off all kinds of alarms for me😀 Why on Earth one would "finish" a 20 yo malt whisky for 3 months just to end up with what is basicaly a high alocholic sherry flavoured whisky liquor??? Apparently that 20 yo malt was sub-par to start with so they decided to mask it with "extreme" sherry influence.
I would have never touched such a bottle no matter the price. The way I see things it is an abomination of a whisky.
In the end it all boils down to supply and demand. If the demand for such a "product" is high enough then who am I to blame Signatory or any other supplier for answering accordingly? At least they had the decency to state all the facts on the label.
As for Benriach whisky I haven't tasted any yet. Off the bottles in my stash the first one I'm going to open someday is maybe the 16 yo from 2016, 43%. The rebranded bottlings are expected on our market sometime this year but I can also get some of the old releases at pretty reasonable price, namely the 10 yo 43%, 10 yo Curiositas and 12 yo Sherry Wood. The 12 yo Sherry Wood is still available for 36 euro.
it is an abomination of a whisky but At least they had the decency to state all the facts on the label - GREAT SUMMARY!