Small but unique distillery still doing malts slowly. And that's good.
Ben Nevis McDonald's Traditional 46% - right after Macallan started doing replicas of its older malts Ben Nevis decided to join this race. Though they ventured to recreate the style of 19-th century :) What I was told on the distillery is they found some very old bottle of McDonald's in the warehouse, tasted it and tried to make something similar in celebration of their 185-th anniversary. I'm not an expert on 19-th century whisky, though let's see... Nose: hints of smoke, forest, wool (hello, sheep!), tobacco and ashes. Very unusual though I like it! You can call this young Brora :) The palate is simpler, sweet rubber and peat. Some fermented apples in the aftertaste. The nose is great, palate and finish lag behind, though it's great attempt in my humble opinion to recreate old Highland style. Especially when it costs so cheap, surely a bargain. Score = 86/100!
Ben Nevis 18 yo 1996/2014 Sansibar 49.6% - completely different style. More mineral and lemony in the nose. Palate is rocky, granitic and mineral. With water it becomes more sweet and fruity, without water it feels like you're chewing stones. A tad better built malt, than the previous one, so the score is 87/100!
Ben Nevis 15 yo cask #737 59.7% - the nose is quite reserved, let's wait a bit... With 2 tea spoons of water (hello, Ralfy!) some sherry and sweetness come out. Then you get farmy notes from McDonalds - wool and tobacco. Very powerful taste on oak, fruits and spices. Well, it's worth 88/100!
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