The BenRiach
Not just another Speyside…
In a world that has undergone an explosion in the amount and variety of Whisk(e)y being released and marketed its often difficult for a brand or distillery to distinguish itself from other players in the market. Some brands let their marketing teams run wild with amazing stories, which while invariably amusing or interesting, seem to have little real-world bearing on what’s in the bottle. Others trade off perceived rarity/scarcity.
Some stand out purely by virtue of who they are and what do.
One such distillery is The BenRiach.
Producing arguably the most varied flavour palate of Single Malts, from the heart of what is considered the most conservative and protective of all Whisky producing regions in the most tightly regulated and conservative Whisky producing countries, The BenRiach is a distillery that nowadays proudly marches to the beat of its own drum. The refreshing aspect to this ‘uniqueness’ and depth, is that it is driven by the history, vision and passion of the producers (past and present) rather than concocted in a marketing group’s boardroom. Add in the fact that the whisky is objectively damn good, still relatively under the radar, and never (well rarely) boring and you have the hallmarks and makings of a true whisky lover’s dream come true.
So how did we get here? I’m sure entire books could (and probably at some stage will) be dedicated to exploring this question. I’m going to try distilling (heh) the story down to what I think are the main reasons — here hold my bee.. whisky, I said whisky.
The BenRiach distillery was built in 1898 by John Duff (no relation to the Duff brewery from The Simpsons) in the heart of the Speyside region of Scotland (Speyside being the region where over 53% of all Scottish distilleries are located today) more or less between the villages of Elgin and Rothes. Speyside is extremely popular as a region for Whisky makers as it lies along the river Spey (hence Speyside), which is a readily accessible and reliable supply of fresh water, one of the main ingredients for the production of Whisky. All well and good you might say — but just to be different The BenRiach actually draws its water from the Burnside Springs which are fed from an underground reservoir under the Cairngorm Mountains. This provides The Benriach with a unique ‘minerality’ and character in its water supply.
Another point of difference (among the many) is the distilleries long history with onsite floor malting, which continues (albeit non-contiguously) to this day, with one of the few remaining onsite floor malting operations in Scotland. Indeed the Distillery was almost exclusively a malting plant for the first 67 years of its life as the stills were only operational for the first two years of the distilleries life, switching to exclusively providing malting services to nearby sister distillery Longmorn (also co-founded by John Duff) from 1900–1965 due to a downturn in the whisky market very early on in the inception of The BenRiach. Although the floor malting’s are not of a scale to supply all of The BenRiach’s production schedule, the remainder is grown and malted nearby.
Since the stills were resurrected and fired up in 1966 (after acquisition by Glenlivet Distillers Ltd) and through its acquisition by Seagram’s in 1978 (and Seagrams absorption by Pernod Ricard in 2001) the distillery was producing spirit destined for blends. It wasn’t until 2004 when a private consortium fronted by Billy Walker, took ownership of The BenRiach that the focus moved to single malt. What was preserved through all of this, and to this day under the current ownership of Brown-Forman (of Jack Daniels fame) is the light, fruit forward, sweet fresh barley and hay character of the spirit produced by the stills at The BenRiach. This character is extremely versatile and is a feature which has been exploited right from the beginning, being produced in both peated and unpeated varieties and ages, and more and more often finished in a wide variety of casks, alongside the traditional ex-bourbon and sherry casks so prevalent in most distilleries. It’s a testament to this versatility (and the power of wood!) that The BenRiach can release single cask expressions that vary so much (more than any other house I’ve had the good fortune to sample) in delivery, yet maintain balance, consistency and (most importantly) drinkability.
So we’ve talked about the barley, the water and the wood (well touched upon). Besides yeast (which is typically a closely guarded trade secret in most distilleries), the only other ingredient besides time (which without getting too far into is fairly consistent across all of reality, particularly Scotland) is the people. The people who malt, grist, mash, ferment, distil, select and marry casks and bottle them are often overlooked in the equation, which is strange as they literally decide what is made and what is released for us to try.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the role of the Master Blender.
Which brings us to Rachel Barrie. Rachel joined Brown-Forman in early 2017 as Whisky Maker and Master Blender for The BenRiach, The GlenDronach and Glenglassaugh. With over 27 years experience in the industry (having worked for/with such luminaries as Glenmorangie, Ardbeg, Bowmore & Dr. Jim Swan to just name a few), Rachel is more than amply qualified to lead The BenRiach and it’s siblings into the future, growing the ardent but small fan base of each by bringing her knowledge, passion (evident in her writing — follow her on twitter @TheLadyBlender) and direction to distilling and bottling what has been laid down by her predecessors and what is yet to come.
Having experienced firsthand the most recent release of The Glendronach 18 and The 15th release of The BenRiach single casks, produced and selected to Rachel’s specifications, it would be an understatement to say we are extremely excited for the future of The BenRiach under it’s new Maestro.
Now that you’re all learnt up on The BenRiach, you might just be interested in finding a bottle or two. And we might just know where you can find some ;)
