New whisky reviews: Batch 147

The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival may be over for another year, but that doesn’t stop Dave Broom and Becky Paskin from continuing the regional theme with this week’s batch of new whisky reviews. It may be hard to pinpoint a unifying Speyside style with any precision, but there is a thread of richness and distillery personality running through most of these single malts. Not least with Broom’s opener, a characterful Benrinnes from independent bottler Cadenhead that combines power with a beguiling sweetness. Richness also abounds with our second whisky, a celebratory Benromach bottled to mark the resurrected distillery’s 20th anniversary. This time there’s a bit more heat (56. 2% abv) and smoke, but Broom nonetheless admires its integration and balance. Times are changing at independent bottler (and owner of Benromach) Gordon & MacPhail, including a revamp of the company’s Connoisseur’s Choice range of small batch and single cask whiskies. A 1997 Glen Elgin gets things off to a...