The Darkness Benrinnes 16 Year Old PX is a very special whisky that we have been dying to release for around 18 months now. We actually committed to it in 2021 as a 14 (and a half) year old – but Sam at Darkness asked us if we’d be interested in leaving it for a bit longer to hit the 16 year old mark. It’s not often these days that 16 year old whiskies pop up at a price that allows us to offer it, and so we committed to ‘the looong wait’ – keeping this under our hats until now! And it’s finally here! Please make way for the Darkness Benrinnes 16 Year Old PX.
Benrinnes is a bit of an oddball distillery in that it rarely releases a distillery bottling of its whiskies. In fact, the ‘Flora and Fauna’ release of is the only official Benrinnes release. The rest goes into blends and to the independent bottlers. So once more, we owe the indy bottlers like ‘Darkness’ a huge thanks for making this distilleries single malt accessible to us all.
Darkness are sherry finish specialists – led by Sam Simmons – independently bottling Speyside whiskies with their own signature twist. They finish all their releases in specially coopered sherry ‘Octave Casks’. Also known as ‘Quarter Casks’, these are relatively small 64L barrels. The huge surface area to volume ratio these Octave casks provide ensures the greatest uptake of the depth and richness of flavour only a sherry cask can provide.
The Darkness brand flies a little ‘under the radar’ here in Australia. One of the brands from the unassumingly named ‘Atom Supplies’ portfolio (which also include ‘That Boutique–y Whisky Company’). Various Darkness expressions are available from time-to-time in small quantities in a few specialty bottle shops. So you can easily be forgiven for never having heard of, let alone laid eyes on one – Lets change that…and you will not be disappointed with the for Darkness Benrinnes 16 Year Old PX!
Nose: Lots of jammy notes up front, but also crushed nuts and sticky date pudding round out the nose nicely.
Palate: A big, meaty dram by all measures. Lovely rich mouthfeel, and a touch of white pepper spiciness. Salty plumbs, chocolate and cinnamon, blackberries by the bucketload, stewed plumbs and vanilla pods. There’s a real meatiness to this dram as well, with a body like a footballer – Big and Solid, Rich and Round!
Finish: Delicious chocolate notes swirl around white pepper, coffee, dark chocolate and stewed fruit. The pepper offsets the abundant sweetness and sweet spices perfectly!
So big, so fruity, so jammy and good! As chewy as juicy fruit- and almost as fruity! It’s got a massive depth of flavour and handles 51.3%ABV with grace and style. A Big, Sweetie, Meaty Dram that will hug you tight in the cold!
This Benrinnes 16 Year Old we’ve bottled exclusively for The Single Malt Whisky Club, is from our limited edition range that focuses on unrepeatable releases that have each undertaken our signature liquid transformation in sherry octaves (just an eighth the size of a sherry butt) that makes the Darkness range beloved by whisky fans all over the world. The first batch of the new Darkness limited editions in summer 2020 sold out almost instantly and included whiskies from distilleries such as Ardbeg, Linkwood, Dailuaine and Lochindaal. There have been 9 successful limited-edition series since.
Benrinnes is meaty, nutty and rich from partial triple distillation and use of wormtub condensers. It’s the glue of many of Diageo’s blended whiskies for good reason and it is a make that takes sherry maturation very well. The particular cask we assigned for this special limited edition Darkness release was Pedro Ximenez and they were well suited for the spirit giving those sweet fruity characters we expect and love from PX.
Nose: Milk chocolate digestive biscuits, freshly brewed coffee and a little wood char before dried apricots, and dense figgy pudding
Palate: Dense & mouthfilling. Full of dark syrupy fruits, moist chocolate brownie laced with walnuts & cherries, deep oak, spice and a touch of wood smoke.
Finish: Long, complex and immensely satisfying with lingering sweet baking spice
Sam Simmons – Head Honcho of Whisky at Darkness (and That Boutique-y Whisky Company as well for that matter), known throughout the industry as ‘Dr Whisky’ had this to say:
“BEN-RIGHTEOUS!!!…… BOOF!…. LET’S BOTTLE!!”
Darkness is a collection of intensely sherried whiskies from Atom Supplies. Atom are responsible for a number of highly sought after spirit brands including ‘That Boutique-y Whisky Company’ and ‘That Boutique-y Rum Company’.
The backbone of the Darkness brand are specially hand-coopered octave or quarter casks for a hugely increased surface area to volume ratio. These tiny 64l vessels result in the liquid yielding maximum richness and depth plus an alluring 100% natural red, amber colour.
Their flagship bottling – Darkness 8 Year Old – has won various accolades since launching in 2019, including Double Gold at the 2020 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, Gold Medals at the 2020 and 2021 World Whiskies Awards, and 96 points from the IWSC in 2021 and 2022.
Every whisky in the Darkness range has undertaken their signature maturation of 6 months in sherried octave cask, rewarding the drinker with an unparalleled richness and depth of flavour. The kind that can only be achieved by the liquid to wood ratio in octave cask maturation.
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