Follow Us:

Blog

Day 24 - KWM 2025 This Is Still Not An Advent Calendar

Posted on December 25, 2025

by Evan

KWM and many others have discussed what sets Gordon & MacPhail apart from other whisky companies, and about how the company is what it is because of decisions made generations ago. We have also talked about how the family members and employees in the company see themselves as curators and operate with future generations in mind. There are many decisions that have been made in G&M’s 120-year history that possibly seemed small at the time but are paying huge dividends now, and will continue to do so in the future.

Gordon & MacPhail gets a decent amount of press for its legendary collection of older casks and ongoing series of releases of the world’s oldest Single Malt Scotch bottlings. They have released a few different 70 Year Old bottlings, a 75 Year Old, an 80 Year Old, and now an 85 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky. The 80 and 85 year old Single Malts were distilled at Glenlivet Distillery and put into Sherry Butts  in 1940. The family family-owned owned Gordon & MacPhail still have multiple casks from 1940 remaining; still aging away; with plans to release a 100 Year Old Single Malt at some point in the future. My best guess is that might happen in 2040, if I am mathing it right. Set your timers now!

Of all the choices made at G&M since it started as a grocery store in 1898, I believe the purchase of Benromach Distillery in 1993 may be the single most important.

Benromach was not immediately reopened and put into operation after Gordon & MacPhail purchased it. As with everything else it undertakes, G&M had a plan and the patience to do things right. Only after a 5-year-long rebuild and refurbishing process did the distillery start production once more.

The whisky Benromach produces has almost as much philosophy and tradition behind it as it does style. G&M never looked to create or clone what other modern Speyside distilleries were making. Instead, they chose to go make a whisky that hearkened by what Speyside Whisky used to be 60+ years ago. Benromach does not make the light, fruity, unpeated spirit you can find from many of the typical Glens’ Livet, Fiddich, Moray, and more. Instead, Benromach is a rich, peated whisky that can stand up to maturation in sherry casks without having all of its character drowned out by the liquid that was held in the cask before it.

YouTube Recording from a Benromach / Gordon & MacPhail Virtual Tasting hosted by KWM

Case in point: let’s try this KWM cask that spent 18 years maturing in a first fill sherry hogshead. Will it be all dumpy sherry, or will Benromach’s true spirit still shine through?

Benromach 2005 KWM Cask 335 – 58.5%

Our 7th KWM exclusive Benromach cask, is the first from sherry... Distilled in 2005, the whisky was matured 18 years in a First Fill Sherry Hogshead Cask (No. 335).

Andrew's Tasting Note

Nose: sherry, peat, and tropical fruit with a musty old-school profile; soft new leather, fruity tobacco, and sweet dark chocolate; mango, papaya, and apricot mixed with slightly dirty engine oil; Eatmore candy bars and Fig Newtons; the smoke is subtle and clean; wood spice.

Palate: juicy, malty, and dark with loads of chocolate and firm but delicate earthy peat; loads of tobacco: a classic cigar lounge with plush leather sofas and brandy snifters full of old Armagnac; orange and grapefruit to start, with more tropical tones fighting against the weight of the sherry; more dark chocolate, soft leather, and woody spices; more Eatmore and Fig Newtons; overall a very old-school sherry profile with a touch of funk and elegant smoke.

Finish: coating, earthy, and fruity with more tobacco, chocolate, and clean smoke; syrupy with old school sherry.

Comment: this is channelling Campbeltown's finest... vibes of Springbank and Longrow 18... kind of in the middle; fruity, funky, and elegantly smoked with a fairly old-school sherry profile; superb stuff! 

Evan’s Tasting Note

Nose: Singed Orange rind, pitted dates, buttered toast with a mix of marmalade and strawberry jam, maple glazed bacon, olive brine, and the last glowing embers of a wood fire about to die out.

Palate: Full of big grain and malt and wispy peat smoke. Notes of hot cocoa, s'mores, dried strawberry slices, more marmalade, peach cobbler, caramelized brown sugar, and faint hints of lavender and ozone.

Finish: Long and warming, with bursts of spice and fruit and smoke taking turns popping up on the fade.

Comment: Benromach can do no wrong in my eyes – at least over the length of Gordon & MacPhail’s ownership. This 2005 sherry cask perhaps doesn’t get the love compared to the 2002 KWM casks we have selected, but man oh man it should.

Can you believe we only have one more dram to go in the KWM 2025 Still Not An Advent Calendar tasting series? See you tomorrow for Day 25!

Cheers,

Evan

evan@kensingtonwinemarket.com

This entry was posted in Whisky, Tastings, Whisky Calendars, Distillery, Independent Bottler, Tastings - Online Tasting, KWM Single Cask, KWM 2025 Still Not An Advent Calendar Tastings

 

 

Recent Posts
Archives

Categories