Scotland, Speyside. Distillery operational. Owner: Brown Forman

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Benriach is a distillery that has reopened on more than one occasion. The first was in 1898 at the initiative of John Duff, who built the distillery before, just ten years later, being forced to close it down following the Pattison Crash. The second was in 1965 at the instigation of Glenlivet Distilleries Ltd (the future Chivas Bothers), who completely rebuilt the distillery in order to produce a “blender's malt”. Finally, in 29 April 2004, the distillery came into the hands of Billy Walker and his South-African partners and began operating again in September of the same year. In the meantime, only a few independent bottlers, including Gordon & MacPhail, released expressions of the Benriach malt. When it comes to in-house expressions, a 10 year old version was released by the Seagram Group in 1994. Despite its 120 years of history, Benriach is a distillery only now coming to the foreground of collectable whiskies, and connoisseurs are no longer under any allusions as to its worth. The now-frequent single cask vintages are immediately seized upon as soon as they released.

Benriach 10 Year Old was launched in 1994 as part of the Heritage Collection, which also included Glen Keith, Benriach and Longmorn. For Seagram, which owned these distilleries, it was a way to compete with the Classic Malts launched by United Distillers in 1998 and the Caledonian Malts launched by Allied Distillers in 1991. This edition was discontinued in the early 2000s after Seagram folded and the distillery closed.