Speyside Beinn Dubh The Black

5

Dessert scotch! This paired beautifully with a dense, flourless chocolate cake. It’s rich, smooth, and tastes of caramel. A lovely and unusual Speyside.

5

I really enjoyed the wonderful flavors and the Woody finish. I am an instant fan of this.

5

Beinn Dubh tastes and smells like liquid smoked caramel... Lovely!

1

So smooth and lacking in taste I'd rate it as something to get drunk on rather than savour. So it's dark, shall we give it a round of applause? Trying to ascribe notes of flavour to it requires more thought to try and discern something, anything, than I have either the time or patience for. I have a bottle of Highland Park 12 year old here. Let me pour a dram. Ha, ha, ha! If the Highland Park rates a ten, this Beinn Dubh rates a minus 3. It's awful. Made for swanning around socialites, I'd say. Still, I'll have to lie to my poor brother who gave it me just to keep the old family relations on an even keel. Spent a week living on the old Ardbeg Distillery manager's house back in '93 when it was temporarily shut down, got the tour of Islay distilleries with him to introduce me. He had a few personal bottles from a Bruichladdich special keg bottling that was the best malt I ever had. Ridiculous. That distillery was also closed at the time, a bit of a low point for the malt whisky industry. Then it got popular for the hipsters and all these distilleries re-opened, and there's enough special bottlings to drown a sinking ship, which rather strays from the original point. It was ever thus when an industry becomes over-commercialized and over-hyped, forgetting the point. So this Beinn Dubh seems like an opportunistic run at making money to me, as an ancient purist. Been through just a few malt whiskies since 1970. This Beinn Dubh is a convenience malt made to profit from the burgeoning trade of people thinking they're going to be whisky connoisseur experts among their friends, I'd say. Sorry. Young, not stated age Glenfiddich is superior and pretty near machine-made judging from my visit. 100 proof Glenfarclas from the friendly distillery not far away is ten times the liquor. Dear oh dear.

2

Just sipping a wee dram of this in the Carindow Stagecoach Inn, Argyll. The manager has told me how to pronounce the name twice but I still can't...anyway. Black treacle in colour with great thick legs, typical speyside cakes on the nose. A moderately powerful burn on the palate. Rolling the liquid around the mouth intensifies that burn revealing no further flavour than christmas cake with a hint of plum. A little milk chocolate on a lingering finish. Overall its ok but not great especially considering the price of the bottle which is in a price bracket that coule buy 2x superior budget bottles or any number of better bottles in the same price.