Although it has long been highly prized by blenders - being one of a select few malts rated as 'first class' for blending purposes - Benrinnes was only officially bottled for the first time as a single malt in its own right in 1991, when Diageo forerunners United Distillers released a 15 year old expression as part of the Flora and Fauna series. A 'partially' triple-distilled Speysider, this single malt from the Benrinnes distillery was bottled at 15 years for the Flora and Fauna series.
What you smell and taste in a whisky is highly subjective.
Even the pros do not always agree on the tasting notes. Therefore, we have combined the tasting notes from several sources into a cross-section Nose, Palate, and Finish to find the commonalities between two whiskies. We use the Aroma Wheel with its concentric circles of increasingly specific tastes and smells (general in the center; more specific the further out you go) to find Exact, Secondary, and General matches between two whiskies. We also take into account other important factors like mash bill, barrel type(s), ABV, region, ratings, price and more. We then weight each factor based on what we believe to be the approximate importance it has in determining whether two whiskies are similar.
We're all different.
Again, we cannot stress enough that what you smell and taste in a whisky is likely going to be different than the person you're drinking it with. Whisky Mates is meant to be a guide to help you find what you like drinking, using the best methodologies available. In the end, rely on your own palate to tell you what you like and don't like.