Description
£345
Ben Nevis Single Malt Scotch Whisky
1996, 28 Years Old
Refill Sherry Butt / 594 bottles
47.8% ABV
Artwork by: Whisky Hobo
It’s not often that a cask of 1996 Ben Nevis rears its head these days. A legendary vintage by modern standards, we feel this cask showcases this year, and the distillery at which it was produced, in stunning heights. Full of Pacific tropicality, minerality, pure joy and many more beautiful words, we hope you enjoy this, our fifth single cask from this incredible year in the distillery’s history.
A note on the gentleman adorning this bottle of whisky. (The TL;DR version is – Nikka own Ben Nevis.)
His name is Masataka Taketsuru, born in Takehara, Hiroshima prefecture, Japan. Born to a family of sake brewers in 1894, Taketsuru would go on to be rightly known as the father of the Japanese whisky industry. He travelled to Scotland in 1918 to learn the ways of whisky production and enrolled at Glasgow University to study chemistry. He also spent time working at three distilleries around Scotland; Longmorn to learn malt whisky production; Bo’ness Distillery to learn Coffey grain production; and finally, Hazelburn Distillery in Campbeltown to learn the ways of love (he moved to Campbeltown with his recent wife, Rita Cowan, married in January 1920).
Upon successfully soaking up all he could about Scotch whisky production, he took this information back to Japan and eventually helped to establish Yamazaki Distillery with Suntory in 1923, the first whisky distillery in Japan. 11 years later, Taketsuru would go on to found his own company Nikka Whisky in 1934.
So, why is this relevant? Nikka Whisky went on to eventually purchase Ben Nevis in 1989. They receive their share of criticism for sending bulk Ben Nevis distillate over to Japan to be used in ‘Japanese whisky’ but 1. does it matter and, 2. who cares. Massive respect must be given to Nikka in their unwavering commitment to time honoured methods of production, keeping the distillery operating in a weird and atavistic fashion, and just a general commitment to juice.
I won’t go into more detail than that as I need to get back to the warehouse but his story is a fascinating one and well worth a deep dive if you haven’t already.
As a personal sidenote, this is probably my favourite label design we have ever released and, maybe, accepting my own bias, my favourite ever whisky label. Well done, Mr Andrew Soetiono.
And, it goes without saying, hats off to you, Mr Ross. – Jack Lowrie
Nose: Lychees, cashew, mango vinegar, pomelo. Loquats soaked in beeswax, Cedar of Lebanon, olive oil, with time sour notes begin to appear, sour and nutty like manchego, brioche, strawberry and a drop of soy.
Palate: Waxy red grapes, candied almonds. Then, peach, banana and mango (woah), some slight ashiness (felt but not tasted, does that make sense?) The sherry is there in body but less so in spirit, this is pure distillate driven tropicality.
Finish: More of the same gorgeous island fruits and then some bitter notes from the sherry on the last vestiges of the finish, dark chocolate, coffee and the like. Lasts approximately 20-25 minutes. Will remember forever.
Check our shipping page before ordering!
Non-chill filtered and natural colour. This spirit may haze at low temperatures and under dilution.
Max 1 per person/household!
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