Whisky Connoisseur
Arthur J A Bell
Life after Death
Whisky Connoisseur
Arthur J A Bell
Life after Death
Photo of Benromach Distillery by "nairnbairn" via Wikimedia
On a "blasted heath" near the ancient Morayshire town of Forres, MacBeth met the "Weird Sisters", or three witches. King Duncan met his doom, and history and mythology became inextricably linked.
858 years after the murder of the king, the town, in the centre of a great barley growing area, became home to two distilleries. Alexander Edward, a local distiller, planned and built Dallas Dhu ("Black Water Valley" in Gaelic), about 1 mile out of town, and he sold land to Duncan MacCallum to build Benromach. Eventually both distilleries found their way into the hands of the giant D.C.L., which became United Distillers. In 1983, when the distilleries were both 85 years old, they were closed. Some accountant, sharpening his pencil in London, decided they were surplus to requirement, and shut them down.
The "clever" accountants decided to get government money for closing Dallas Dhu, and turned it into a visitor centre. They sold it to Historic Scotland, and this government department has recently nominated it as a "World Heritage Site". (The picture here of the distillery by Colin Smith via Wikimedia shows valerian flowers in the foreground).
Benromach was not so lucky. Abandoned, with some of the equipment dismantled, it fell into sad disrepair. In the northern climate of Scotland, it doesn't take too long for the elements to take effect. It filled up with tons of "guano". Left to its own devices the Bemromach would eventually have been beyond recovery. But fear not, dear reader, help was at hand.
Can I take you back again to the last few years of Victoria's reign? A grocery business called Gordon and MacPhail was established in the Speyside town of Elgin. Naturally, as they were in the centre of the whisky producing area, they specialised in the local product. This family business is run, as it has been for three generations, by the Urquharts, and they always wanted their own distillery. Three years after their own business centenary, and one hundred years after Mr MacCallum built it, they have one!
On the 15th of October 1998 they re-opened Benromach. I was there to celebrate with the family, their suppliers, the craftsmen who re-equipped it, and their customers. We came from the USA and Japan, from Belgium and Italy, from Scandinavia and Scotland to welcome the whisky equivalent of the raising of Lazarus. We witnessed life after death!
The piper blew almost as strongly as the wind, as we stood around the door of the splendid sparkling white, newly painted distillery. A police escort drew up, and the driver emerged from the second vehicle. It was the Duke of Rothesay himself, the great, great, great grandson of the whisky-tippling late Queen Victoria. Better known to the world as Prince Charles, heir to the throne. Ian Urquhart, the Managing Director of Gordon and MacPhail, escorted the Prince into the warmth of the distillery, whilst the crowd headed for the large marquee.
His Royal Highness (looking younger then than he does now in this graphic via Wikimedia) examined the mash tuns, filled with ground, lightly peated, malted barley, the old wooden "washbacks" where the brew is fermented, and then the bright new copper stills turning the liquid into "uisqubeatha". MacBeth's witches were never able to conjure up such magic a millennium ago on the moors at Forres! After asking the head distiller where they had found all the equipment, the Prince enquired of the head distiller where he had been found. "In a heap sir!" came the reply.
Whilst HRH studied the alchemy, we talked whisky, and somewhat incongruously drank champagne. The musicians of Forres Academy entertained us with fiddle music, before the Prince joined us. He was both relaxed and relaxing, as he talked to many of the guests. Then after downing a dram of Benromach 1983, with obvious relish, he unveiled a commemorative plaque. He told his audience that when he was a schoolboy at nearby Gordonstoun, (despite the presence of the Urquhart boys), the consumption of locally produced liquid was seriously frowned upon.
And so to lunch….
Your scribe sat beside David Urquhart, Sales Director, his wife Sheila (herself a Bell before marriage), and their two student sons who hope to keep the family line going in the business. Finest Scotch fillet of beef from Highland cattle was a highlight, ably assisted down the throat by one of my particular favourites, Chateau Cissac a great Medoc from 1987.
"When is he going to talk about the Benromach?" I almost hear you cry through cyberspace. You have to be as patient as I was. Please remember nothing has been produced there for 15 forlorn years, but I had faith that the enterprising Urquharts would not let us down. They had sourced three barrels of the 1983 nectar, one of them being a sherry barrel first used for malt whisky in 1886, before the distillery had even been built!
So to end the meal they served this rare vintage malt. As your scribe had to travel 220 miles south he had been fearful he would miss this treat, lest he find himself blowing up a bag for the "polisman". However precautions had been take in your interests. The sacrifice was as follows: I had sipped orange juice with a thimbleful of champagne. I merely tasted a quarter glass of the superb Sancerre, and only partook of a half glass of Cissac. The nice firemaster for Morayshire, who sat on my right, opined I could drink the Benromach and still drive without fear.
Holding the glass up to the light was like looking at a ripe barley field on a sunny day. A truly beautiful golden glow, with lots of highlights, giving the taste buds an anticipatory thrill. So on to the nose. Now was this an experience for which it was worth missing all the pleasures of the grape? There was an immediate strength of sweetness, with plenty fruit, and a ripe mellow richness that typifies the best of the Speyside malts. Many years in oak had not dulled the bouquet, it was a masterpiece, or so my well-bashed proboscus told me. Eliza Doolittle in "My Fair Lady" sang "I could have danced all night". The old Bell hooter "Could have nosed all night"!
Lowering the glass to my lips I wondered whether the promise could be fulfilled. It was. The initial sweetness on the nose was maintained, but not in a cloying way. Ripe and with lots of fruit, and hints of cinnamon and other spices came through. There was too a little, but not overwhelming, peatiness. Long on the finish, it kept its clean and floral notes on my palate for quite some time. As it had been bottled at 43%, I did not add any water, and the sensation of warming smoothness as it went down the hatch was as pleasing as that first vision of its golden hue.
When the distillery was closed on 24th March 1983, the workers signed the wall after they had filled cask no 535, the very last production until now. Even the excise man put his name there with the manager and his small team. Now a new name has been written in to the history of Benromach, that of our future King, HRH Prince Charles. As he drove off, having obviously enjoyed his dram, he had the advantage over yours truly of a police escort!
My thoughts went back almost 1000 years to MacBeth as he headed off to become "King hereafter" from Forres. As the weird sisters had given him a potion with things like wing of bat and tongue of toad, it was hardly surprising he'd gone off on a rampage. Some things have definitely improved over the millennium! Welcome back to life Benromach.
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