I visited the distillery in Fort William today. £45 from the shop. It’s so full of character and has one of the most engaging finishes of any whisky I’ve ever tasted. It’s definitely non-chill filtered and natural colour. Off to Pitlochry tomorrow to visit Blair Atholl and especially Edradour. Then off to Deanston the day after.

Ralfy I have to agree with you regarding the character of Ben Nevis. I love it and search out for their dusty official releases and great independent bottlings.

My favorite malt. (the older edition was pure fun) And the Glencoe 8...omg, what a whisky!

I love you start to separate the qualety stuff! Nice video

I love Ben Nevis! Great review Ralfy. Slangevar 🥃🥃

Have a independent bottling 18 year from Old Particular cask strength arriving tomorrow looking forward to trying it. Cheers Ralfy

Not sure if you knew but Ben Nevis seem to have taken your advice on board for the 2021 release of the 10yr. States natural colour and non chill filtered on label and doesn’t have the waffle on there. My bottle came today so I’m hoping it will be a step up from this one!

Nice whiskey, got a bottle from the distillery when I was up there in September.

Great review Ralfy...off to find a bottle at the right price.

Great review!

Oh thank goodness, I thought Ralphy was going to praise this to the roof. It is hard enough to get it already.

The Whisky Exchange just opened a third location in London not far from my house. Planning to visit there this weekend if I see this i will see if I can try it.

I've been on the lookout, since you recommend it, 10 years ago. I only found an independent bottling from Battlehill. It had a bad cork, it was not drinkable. 😥

Agree on Japanese whisky. Has been a while since I bought a bottle of Japanese malt

Hi Ralfy, very competent review. I remember you replied to that youtube shooting star PewDiePie (did I get that right?) as he was tasting Japanese whiskies all over the place. Never bought a Japanese bottle until now as I could not find a single one to have value for the price they asked.

Ralfy, I like the inclusion of 70+ points for basics. Should add some resolution/granularity to ratings. And perhaps some of us can see your opinion on some NAS bottles that are good without you compromising your own integrity 👍😎

Ahhh...thank you for fixing the *f* for us anoraks. ;)

Nice review of this Ben Nevis! I hope you get a hold of the Cask Strength version which is great stuff! As for your assessment of Japanese whiskey, I do agree the integrity has gone down hill, with probably Chichibu being the one exception. Hopefully, Nikka and Suntory will get their act together someday!

RALFY!!!!

Oh, I've never had that one. Wonder if i can get hold of it here in Sweden.

good one... *slàinte*

I do hope you open up marks from 70 soon Ralfy. It's going to get confusing having two sets of numbers otherwise.

Ralfy, now this makes me wonder what kind of basic malt mark Clynelish 14 will get if it ever gets re-reviewed by you.

Thanks Ralfy! Warmed me up ~ now curious - What Water did you add? *_Water of Life_* @ 4:35 ~ ~ without "flannel"?

Ralfy have you ever thought about making a review video on those chocolates with whiskey in them or for a fun video review a bottle of root beer?

Ralfy have you thought of a motorcycle tour of Scotland and USA Whiskey distilleries ?

Congratulations for starting good old school British systematisation. 😉👍

Opening this today same bottling

Ralfy you Scotch sage of surpassing sagacity, did you do anything for Burn's Night?

is the glencoe, 8 year old, natural color, 58% blended malt from ben nevis worth checking out. i can see it retails around the same price as ben nevis 10.

Ralfy, if you’re changing to a 70-100 for basics does that open the door to reviewing non-age-statements and blends again? I personally would love to see an honest appraisal of these recent non-age-statement drama. Maybe hang a 70 on a deserving offender?

Sounds like a belter. Don't see it too often though...

thanks Ralfy for the review. hope you could feature ben nevis' IBs in the near future cos they they taste much better than this OB, e.g. whisky live paris 2019, thompson brothers, whisky agency, liquid treasures, and spirits shop selection.

Currently these are going for 150 euro, because its has been bought up and speculated on.

📝

Excellent as always. Ralfy, Malt mates. Does anybody have any recommendations for a decent sub £100 drop to celebrate the end of dry January/toast to a new arrival? Big fan of sherry cask Islay at the moment.

Do you have available a complete list of the whiskeys and ratings you've done so far?

I like ben nevis its just a shame it feels forgoten i have 2 sealed bottles of ben nevis

picked up a bottle of Ben Nevis 17 year old - An Alexander Murray bottling from 1997. Not sure what to expect. Thoughts?

Would BenRiach 10 or the 12 sherry wood be a decent comparison in terms of aggressive nature?

I only buy Japanese Whisky if the bottle still has Canadian Whisky printed in the bottle

The old 10yo used to be one of my favorites... how does it compare to the new bottling?

After 10 years of champion higher strength, why haven’t the distilleries caught on? They bottle higher strength for the USA. Maybe you could expound on why the disparity.

I found a Signatory 9 year old Ben Nevis. 46% Natural colour, non chill filtered $88nzd (44.36 pounds sterling) - this seems reasonable value Ralfy - what do you think?

Hm Ben Nevis 10 is here in Japan only 43%.

cool that you are rating this malt so low and saying even that the CS version is not worth it - yeah - so more is left for me to buy at a reasonable price...yeah

There will be a whisky crash in due time... accumulate your integrity malts while you can because once the collapse hits the majority of producers will scramble for volume and market share (or die) and that doesn't mean high quality will prevail.

I feel the same way towards Japanese whisky these days: they don't seem to have any distinct character; merely an imitation of Scotch whisky.

Why would you review a Whisky that's been off of shelves for almost a year now Ralfy??!

# Maximum Malty Mouthed Mild Mannered Maltsters

Hi Ralfy. OK, I'm going to go on a rant here. You use the term "Sherry" a lot in this video. After years of reading and watching whisky reviews, I find the terms "Sherry", "Sherry notes" and "sherried" almost as bad as the use of the term "SMOOTH". Interestingly, you don't usually hear reviewers talking about how "Bourbony" a whisky is, yet "Sherry" is a term which seems to be thrown about too much without defining exactly what is meant by it. So what exactly do YOU mean by "Sherried"? Some might use it to signify that the whisky shows characteristics of having been matured in Ex-Sherry casks. The problem is that VERY often this term is used for expressions which I KNOW have been matured exclusively in Ex-Bourbon casks!! So what are they talking about? Moreover, when pushed, most reviewers admit to me that they have never actually drank a quality sherry or port in their lives, which is like telling us how "orangy" a whisky is, having never eaten an orange before. If they have drank sherry then it will problably be the Harvey's Bristal Cream type which is a million miles away from sherries used to season casks used to mature whisky. So you could argue that many use it as another term for fruity sweetness, yet there are many different kinds of fruity sweetness ranging from white, yellow, tropical, red to black fruits.Some "frutiness" comes from the distillate, some from the previous contents of the cask. Also, there are many different types of fortified wines, as well as white and red sherry. I assume that when YOU use the term sherry, you mean all the flavours associated with red/black fruits like raisins, prunes, dates, cherries etc...Others however, might not understand this.

First

"Japanese" whisky. Means nothing, stands for nothing. Integrity, my arse. Overrated. Glencoe 8, totally underrated. Slanjeevaurus 🐢