Single Malts of Scotland 23 year old Ben Nevis 1996 Single Cask (Cask No. 1479)

Thick with sherry fruit on the nose: cooked dark berries, raisins, and dried figs, though the fruit becomes more jammy when water is added. There’s also dark chocolate, hazelnuts, and leather. The palate is equally thick and chewy, offering figs, raisins, dark chocolate, coffee bean, and raspberry cake filling, as well as green apple and guava candy showing this whisky’s maturity. It finishes with coffee, chocolate, dark berries, white pepper, orange pith, and oak that verges on bitterness, but never tips over the edge. Stately and dignified. (405 bottles; U.S. exclusive)