The BenRiach 17 Year Old Solstice
60 ml citizen farmer flask
Tasting notes:
In my dream, a friendly genie emerges from a brass lamp carrying a thyrsus (he’s really into Euripides) and pours out a glass of this wine-dark dram. The nose is circus peanuts but I mean this literally: peanuts arranged by two siblings into a circus tableau. Right here is a train of elephants on their haunches, over there a tiger held in place with a chair and whip. Straw covering a threshing floor. Half an eggplant hollowed out to make a ship for roasted chestnuts, slathered with demi-glace. Smoke hangs in the air like a threat of violence.
The mouth is a drying, even zapping, desiccant. The tang of port echoes like a gong. Is there perhaps some bourbon barrel aging in there to account for some vanilla, or the caramel apple brine? Before I can find out, the peat smoke steals over me. Into my palm is pressed smoke-black slivers of charcoal used as wafers at a Satanic communion table. I get cross at myself for crossing myself.
The finish is a case study in refinement, as if the peat particles were isolated with the help of a particle accelerator and a filter made of the metaphorical veils lifted from the eyes of children. Earthy but not dirty, like a citizen farmer. But also high and patrician, like a mid-level Episcopalian functionary. All of this is to say there is no iodine, bandage, or hashish resin here, just delicious whisky.
Rating:
The Benriach 17 Year Old Solstice is Sun Ra–The man made music “rushing forth like a fiery law.”
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