Benromach – 9 Years Old 2011 First Fill Sherry Hogshead Single Cask French Connections (70cl, 60.8%)

This is a single cask Benromach from Speyside, distilled in 2011 and bottled in 2020 at nine years old. It was drawn from a first fill sherry hogshead and bottled at cask strength, 60.8%, in a 70cl bottle, exclusively for France. The edition is limited to 331 bottles. Benromach was founded in 1898 and bought by Gordon & MacPhail in 1992. It reopened in 1998 to make a lightly peated Speyside malt, at 12 ppm. This bottling is lemony, saline and herbal. It recalls a fino sherry from chalky albariza soil, and some drinkers compare it to a vin jaune from the Jura.