BENRIACH 1996 DK EXCLUSIVE - DISTILLERY BOTTLING

Danish BenRiach importer MACY picked this cask (and another peated cask, which I'll be reviewing later) back in 2011 on their tour of Scotland to celebrate their 15th anniversary in the business.

This one is a 'virgin oak' cask... and having looked that up on the great WWW, there seems to be many definitions to what 'virgin oak' cask is - at least when it comes to whisky maturation.

Here's a few suggestions:

• Completely fresh oak off the sawmill coopered into a cask and filled with Scottish spirit
• Fresh oak as above, charred, scraped and then filled with Scottish spirit
• A fresh oak cask, charred, filled with American spirit, emptied and the filled with Scottish spirit
• A fresh oak cask, charred, filled with American spirit, emptied, charred again, then filled with Scottish spirit

I, of course have my own opinion of what this is, of course and I swear to one of the above statements but if you read i.e. an online retailers definition (MoM), it leans in another direction...

But what is your definition of 'virgin oak'? Let's try and get a discussion going although its an older topic in the whisky community... Anyway, while you think about it, you can read my review:

BenRiach 1996/xx.10.2011 15yo 51,5%, single virgin cask#3273, 315 bottles for DK Importer MACY 15th Anniversary

Colour is amber

Nose:
Marzipan, vanilla, varnish, flowery, polished hardwood, clear wood overtones, very spicy too

Taste:
Cough syrup, avalanche of oak spices, sugared almonds (that marzipan again), Wood sap, crisp malt, peppery... even some salt!

A good malt, though not one to venture into without some whisky drinking experience, though

86/100!