The BenRiach 25

Tasting notes:
Stephen was to have written this but he oozed into a puddle. It’s that good. Think of the red leather jacket in “Beat It” when it was first delivered to the property manager. Lemons cut into canoes and piloted by voles. Opening a first edition of a Hemingway that you stole from a library. You now pretend to be him, tracing his signature on the frontispiece and smoke cigars in your cat-filled house.

The nose has an incredible marijuana note. It’s like Burning Man, but admittedly after it became “Burning Man” but before it became Burning Man. Tangy, dank, resinous, peat-soaked; it’s the bandanas used to wipe the sweat of saints as they work to brighten the days of the downtrodden. The effervescence of a mosh pit at an Air Supply reunion concert.

Flamenco guitar resin on the finish. Corduroy pants worn by a genuine prince. Cough suppressant in the jowl of a smoker. A hookah filled with gin and fruit, making a strange gaseous sangria as if in the thought bubbles of a Spaniard and an Englishman. Sage leaves sautéed in ghee and topped with walnut oil. In short, this BenRiach has it all and then some.

Rating: