Benriach – The Sixteen

The Benriach distillery and its brand is one of several Scottish single malt whiskies that have gone through something of a re-invention and transformation in recent years.  Located towards the northern end of Speyside, not far south of Elgin, Benriach has gone from relative obscurity to much-adored in less than two decades.  Attention and interest in the brand is set to further grow with the re-introduction of the Benriach 16, styled on the label as Benriach – The Sixteen.

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Women in whisky

It’s probably been more than 25 years since the theme or topic of “women in whisky” first got written about in the modern circles of whisky publishing.  By which I mean the new wave of books and magazines that started to emerge in the 1990’s, and the endless number of blogs, forums, and social media outlets in more recent times.   Indeed, flicking through my old back issues of Whisky Magazine from the early 2000’s, it didn’t take me long to find articles, profiles, and feature pieces that all revolved around women and whisky, or women in whisky.

Issue 14 of Whisky Magazine in 2001 had a feature article on “Whisky’s Women”. This issue from 2004 featured three articles about women and whisky; similar themes were explored in a 2005 issue, “Women of High Spirits”, and a 2007 issue with “Driven Women”.

It is an interesting topic to write about in 2023.  In some ways, there is a valid sentiment that holds this shouldn’t be a thing anymore.  Afterall, we’ve had several decades now of articles, interviews, and profile pieces highlighting the wonderful work of female distillers, master blenders, brand ambassadors, writers, journalists, bartenders, visitor centre managers, mixologists, and so on.   Women are prolific in so many corners and reaches of the whisky industry these days, one could be forgiven for questioning if gender needs to be an issue anymore.  And yet…

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