The BenRiach 10 Years – Curiositas

Good morning to all of my wonderful followers, I hope you’re all having a fabulous week so far, I am here today to deliver a new Whisky Wednesday Review Post. 

Now, I know that Spring is still a couple of months away, but I am a keen lover of sweet drinks from time to time, especially fruity beers or even sweet-tasting whiskies. 

However, we all are well aware of the certain problem that we face when selecting our types of drink, we have certain factors to take into account, such as Aroma, Flavour, Appearance and Aftertaste. 

Now if only we could buy every single type of beer/whisky that there is in the whole world right now, of course, its ultimately impossible, the way to win this battle is to find something that matches our tasting criteria and that brings me on to today’s post!

Here is my whisky review post based on The BenRiach 10 Years (Curiositas)

History

The Curiositas is a marvellous Single Malt Peated Scotch Whisky which is proudly brewed by The BenRiach Distillery. 

In the 1890s, the whisky industry in Scotland was coming to life, it was the busiest time with over thirty distilleries preparing to open up for the first time. 

One of these distilleries was The BenRiach which was founded by John Duff in 1898. 

The distillery is located south from the Royal Air Force station at Lossiemouth, it is situated in one of the quietest times and remote areas within Northern Scotland.  

The distillery’s name comes from a small hill ‘Ben’ next to the site of an old ‘Riach’ farm, BenRiach was born!

In two years time, it was a dark age for the whisky industry, it was known as The Pattison Crash triggered a cascade of closures, contractions and output reductions, many distilleries closed and some sadly didn’t survive. 

The distillery froze production up to 1965, in the meantime, the maltings facility inside the distillery remained in constant production, this was to help and support BenRiach’s neighbour distillery, Longmorn Distillery.

Here is an interesting fact for you all here, in order to transport the malted barley between both sites a small train was used to connect both sites. Furthermore, if you look on Google Maps, you’ll be able to clearly see that both sites are five minutes apart. 

In 1965, BenRiach restarts production, this was a fantastic time for the whisky industry as there was a growing global demand for Scotch Whisky, especially in the USA. 

The whisky industry was relaunched once again, many mothballed distilleries re-opened and new distilleries were being built, it was a tremendous time. 

The BenRiach was firstly owned by the Glenlivet Distillers Ltd, the team worked extremely hard to re-open the distillery with the whole building keeping the same features and characteristics. The distillery’s stills were once again running in 1965. 

Next, in 1972 the distillery started to explore the peated distillation, their aim was to create 19th-century style old whisky using malted barley smoked with highland peat. The whisky that I tried is based on the famous making of a classical peated whisky. 

Over time, many distilleries have a surge in demand and this was the same for BenRiach, many people were searching for there ideal Single Malt, production was increased, and the site was expanded to allow two more stills to be installed and still to this very day the distillery uses all four stills. 

In 1994, it was celebration times for the distillery, the first single malt was launched and was based on the traditional 10 years old whisky, which then, later on, became the flagship whisky for the distillery. 

Then, in 2015 the distillery was proudly awarded Global Whisky Distiller Of The Year, a portfolio of single malts, peated whiskies and a wide range of cask strength whiskies just comes to show you that the award was fully deserved. 

As we now move into 2021, the future is looking bright for BenRiach, determination and passion has played its role in delivering some of the finest whiskies on sale today, I can only hope that in the future we will see some new whiskies being launched soon. 

Tasting Notes

A heavily peated whisky which has that exquisite smokiness aroma, flavours of honey, orange and fruitness combined together to deliver a malty and black pepper aftertaste, highly moreish after one glass.  

Review  

On a cold Monday night, I just knew I needed a glass of something warming and refreshing, with the amount of whisky I have, I had the difficult decision of choosing what to indulge in. 

After taking around ten minutes looking, I decided to try a glass of the BenRiach 10-Year-Old Curiositas!

Curiositas is the Latin term for curiosity, which means to know or learn something, I supposed they called it this so people knew why the 10-Year-Old was so important. 

Anyway, it was time to enjoy a beautiful glass of BenRiach and I couldn’t wait to taste it. 

As soon as I poured the whisky into the glass, I could smell the sensational smoky and peated scent, it was glorious and beautiful!

The flavour was just as appealing, there was a strong taste of honey and orange which was so appealing, the whisky delivered such a succulent kick of fruitiness and sweetness. It was so enjoyable. 

There was so much going on inside the glass, I truly couldn’t believe how gorgeous it was, the after taste was enormously pleasant, it was quite herby with a slight spice kick which tickled in the back of your mouth, it was perfect!

I can honestly say, out of the two whiskies that I have, one being the Port Charlotte 2011, I certainly prefer this whisky, there is so much flavour which just makes the whisky so moreish, it makes you want to pour another glass, its completely persuasive!

What a wonderful whisky this was, totally WOW!

Ending 

Okay, so you are probably thinking this whisky delivers to much, the truth is it doesn’t, the feature I totally adore about this whisky is the small characteristic that changes on the after-taste!

Majority of peated whiskies bring that enchanted kick which in my mind that is something you totally want in a glass. 

I would certainly recommend this to whisky to you all, the overall value of this whisky is roughly £40.00, it’s reasonably priced, I managed to buy mine for £30.00 due to it being on offer!

It’s widely available in many whisky shops and of course, can be purchased online. 

If you do have any other questions on this particular whisky or the distillery, please do post them in the comments, or if you have a recommendation then please, by all means, pass them onto me. 

I hope you enjoy the rest of your week, I will be back at the weekend for another beautiful beer review post. 

Take Care and Stay Safe

Cheeeeers 

The Cask Connoisseur