Benrinnes 25 Year Old 1996 (cask 11712 & 11716) - Cask Strength Collection (Signatory)

Benrinnes 1996 25 year old 53.2% (bottled by Signatory Vintage).
Compared it against the Benrinnes 1996 23 year old 52.6% SV I have (and I've also had the Benrinnes 22 52.3% SV but that's all gone and wasn't 'quite' as good as the 23 anyway). The 25 really suprised me by clearly outperforming the 23 year old.

The 23 year old is a very good classic fruity speyside, but the end of the finish on that one left just a slight hint of a brazil nut bitterness that lingers sadly slightly tainting the terrific otherwise experience of the great nose and taste.

This 25 year old has a more refined and warmer woodier (yet still fruity) nose that has remarkably little alcohol burn for 53.2% (you could easily mistake it for 43% it's so refined and more refined than it's 23yr old brother). On the palate it has a light delicious hint of mandarin and perhaps ripe tangerine, and typical (but exemplary) speyside grainy character with a warming woodsy feeling as it goes down incredibly smoothly. The long finish is an extension of those characters in the nose and palatewith also a very subtle nuttyness coming through but this time it's more a creamy macadamia/hazelnut finish (a FAR nicer aftertaste). It's utterly fantastic.

I understand why the 23 year old Benrinnes 1996 was given only 89% on whisky base, that slightly bitter brazil nut finish giving hard to please whisky connoisseurs something to mark it down on. This 25 year old is pretty much perfect. I feel it's superior in every way to the still great 1996 Benrinnes 23 year old and has no negatives I can note. Expect to see this hit atleast 91% or more on whiskybase as those connoisseurs have nothing to winge about here. An utter masterpiece.