Diageo's Flora & Fauna range was launched in 1991 to give its many anonymous blend-feeding malts a single official voice. Twenty-six distilleries received one bottling each, illustrated with a piece of local wildlife and pitched at a sensible age. It was never advertised loudly. It simply remains, a quarter of a century on, the most comprehensive distillery-by-distillery range ever assembled.
Benrinnes stands on the lower slopes of Ben Rinnes itself, the great Speyside hill that lends its name to half a dozen distilleries below. The current site dates from 1835, rebuilt after a flood by John Innes and later by William Smith. Benrinnes is famous for two things. First, its partial triple distillation — for most of its history the distillery operated a complicated three-still arrangement that effectively distilled some of the spirit two-and-a-half times, a system unique in Scotland and finally retired in 2007. Second, its worm tubs: unlike the modern shell-and-tube condensers used almost everywhere else, Benrinnes still cools its spirit through coiled copper worms in outdoor wooden tubs, which restricts copper contact and produces the heavy, sulphured, meaty character the blenders want for Crawford's and Johnnie Walker.
The 15 Year Old F&F is the standard expression and a textbook example of old-style heavy Speyside. The sulphur is not a flaw; it is the point. Drinkers raised on polished modern sherry malts may need a moment to adjust, but those who like Mortlach, Glenfarclas 105 or old Macallan will recognise an old friend.
