Benromach 1969-2009 - 39 Year Old - Sir Robin Knox-Johnstons

Benromach is a small, traditional old school Highland style distillery in Speyside. Founded in 1898, Benromach distillery changed hands several times before being acquired by Diageo forerunner DCL in 1953. DCL mothballed Benromach in 1983 and sold the distillery a decade later to independent bottlers Gordon & MacPhail. DCL had removed much of Benromach’s equipment and the distillery needed five years of renovation before production restarted in 1998.

Gordon & MacPhail commenced bottling official Benromach whiskies in the mid-1990s, the best of which was a 1974 vintage bottled in 1997, the year before Diageo issued an excellent 1978 Rare Malts edition from retained stock. Gordon & MacPhail relaunched Benromach in 2004 with Benromach Traditional and now bottle a core range alongside old vintages and innovative editions including Benromach Organic and some peated Benromach whiskies. Independent Benromach is vanishingly rare now, although Samaroli, Cadenhead’s and the SMWS have all bottled excellent old vintages in the past.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.