It's fair to say that I'm not one of these people that has embraced the organic lifestyle. I always seem to associate it with people who will chastise you for throwing used tea bags out (why aren't you composting them?), insist on cycling everywhere and like to give their offspring names like Sequoia or Ptolomey. Organic zeitgeist obsessives who couldn't actually tell you what is allowed to be used in the production of their organic food (would you really give little Jaspar his organic asparagus spears knowing they were laced with aluminium calcium phosphate and elemental sulphur?). People who think GM foods are so bad that Frankensteinesque carrots will lay waste to the whole world leaving it resembling something akin to Cumbernauld town centre. I need to calm down with a nice herbal tea and a spot of yoga .... much better.
So it wouldn't suprise you to hear that I didn't jump for joy at the prospect of an organic whisky. In fact, I didn't know such a thing even existed until I was at a friend's wedding last summer (see earlier post from August 2008). I had forgotten my hipflask so instead had a Sigg bottlefilled with Glenfarclas 105. Great tip actually, if ever you forget a hipflask get a Sigg water bottle (around £10) and use that instead. It might be bulky, not as pretty and you need something like a camera bag to put it in, but it works like a dream. The best man at the wedding had been better organised than me and had remembered his hip flask, within which he had some Benromach Organic. Fast forward 6 months, I'm in Mcleish getting my lunch and notice that it has that empty shelf look of a 1990's Bulgarian department store. The credit crunch had hit and unfortunatley they are now in administration. However, Mcleish's loss is the whisky drinkers gain as there is currently 25% off all alcohol and they have a great selelction of malts. I remembered how nice that particular Benromach had been and bought a bottle for around £20.
The nose is fresh, grassy and with a hint of pear drops. In fact, freshness is something that just keeps on coming with this whisky. It has been finished in American Oak casks and this is so evident in the taste which comes as a burst of flavour. You might think that using virgin barrels and a lack of peat smoke might leave this whisky wanting but this just simply isn't the case. The finish is suprisingly long, but mellow and sublime with, you guessed it, that fresh, light oakiness persisting. Would this whisky taste as good if the barley used to make it had been blasted with Roundup? Is Benromach simply cashing in on the organic tag? To tell you the truth, I don't know and I don't really care, it's just a great whisky and I'm still not composting my tea bags.
