Whisky Emporium

Bunnahabhain

Photo by Whisky Emporium photography

Bunnahabhain distillery

Region: Islay

Location: Port Askaig, Islay, Argyll, PA46 7RR

Status: Operational (currently owned by Burn Stewart)

General whisky characteristics: Maritime, sea, salt, nuts

More great distillery info here, thanks to Malt Madness

Bunnahabhain, 'Darach Ur', 46.3% ABV

Special edition for Travel Retail outlets

Typical cost of this bottle; €€€€€

Glass: Classic Malt

Colour: Walnut

Nose: Very aromatic, violets and various other wild Alpine flowers in a sunny meadow. Also hints of freshly sawn wood.

Palate: Initially very smooth and creamy with lots of aromatic flora. Complex.

Finish: Long and enjoyable.

Overall impression: Another marvellous Bunny! Darach Ur means 'new wood' so with a quite young whisky matured in new wood I wasn't expecting too much from this, but oh boy, was I very pleasantly surprised. This is wonderfully aromatic with only hints of freshly sawn wood. It's also as complex as the Alpine meadow of which it reminds me. Marvellous, worth a flight to the UK just to buy it.

Whisky & Chocolate: Fleur de Sel praline by Franz Combination: The salt combines with this smooth and floral, gentle Islay whisky to induce maritime elements which were not present, but are very welcome. Very good! Even the creaminess id enhanced.

Bunnahabhain, XVIII 18y, 43% ABV

Typical cost of this bottle; €€€€€

Glass: Classic Malt

Colour: Rich, old dark weathered oak. Maybe more teak.

Nose: A weathered old pier support in the Atlantic. This has old wood, some sherry, ligth smoke and a touch of peat all alongside the inimitable Atlantic Ocean.

Palate: Very smooth but the first notes to announce their presence are typical of sherry and old wood, then comes light smoke, followed by toasted almonds and just a faint hint of peat.

With 3 drops of water in 2cl: The nose develops more complexity, but still based mainly around those sherry notes. The palate opens to allow more of the lighter and complexaspects to shine through.

Finish: Long but slightly bitter right at the end.

Overall impression: This is my second Bunnahabhain in a few days and although I still prefer the Darach Ur thanks to its lighter and more aromatic character, this is a good sherry cask whisky which makes me wonder why Bunnahabhain features in my glass so infrequently. I really should explore the gems of this 'quiet' Islay distillery much more.

Bunnahabhain, 14y, 'Port Wood', Limited Edition, bottle No. 1113 of 1220, 53% ABV

Typical cost of this bottle; €€€€€

Glass: Classic Malt

Colour: Dark gold, almost amber

Nose: As with all good Bunnies I'm immediately transported to The Atlantic coast, once again walking along a high coastal path, the sea on one side with a briny breeze in my face. On the other side is a quite floral meadow with slightly perfumed banks of heather and bracken. But this has a third dimension, so the actual path ahead is a slightly smoky and peat-paved.

Palate: Initially a smooth and creamy maritime mouthful which is slightly rich, but then the alcohol kicks in to alight the palate with a tingling fire. This needs water.

With 3 drops of water in 2cl: The maritime elements of the nose just came right to the fore and pleasantly dominate, but the palate is much smoother, a little sweeter and is suddenly filled with fruit. I detect some form of red berries and even a little peach over the light peat flavours.

With 4 more drops of water in about 1cl: That fruit has now burst onto the nose and the palate is now very fruity. The smoke and peat have almost disappeared now.

Finish: Very, very long, with or without water.

Overall impression: A marvellous Bunny! The second addition of water was perhaps just a little too far, but this dram definitely benefits from some drops as it opens delightfully to share its fruity secrets with the drinker.

Independent Bottlers

Art of Whisky, Bunnahabhain, distilled 1978, 31y, 57.4% ABV

Typical cost of this bottle; €€€€€

"Dram-atics" live review

Glass: Classic Malt

Colour: Rich gold, almost amber

Nose: Aromatic freshly cut wood and peat. After some minutes lots of Alpine flora develop, almost like an Apline meadow in Spring with wood and peat.

Palate: Warming sweet peat with honey, but lots of alcohol burn needing water.

With 4 drops of water in 2cl: The nose develops a more maritime feel whereas the palate is now smooth soft peat.

With 4 more drops of water: The peat intensifies but is still smooth.

Finally 4 more drops of water: All hints of flora have disappeared, leaving lots of maritime peat.

Finish: Very long peat, slightly peppery

Overall impression: Lots of peat, a maritime character and some Alpine flora too. Marvellous!

Whisky Doris, Bunnahabhain, distilled 2000, bottled 2010, 9y, "Sherry Butt", 59% ABV

Typical cost of this bottle; €€€€€

"Dram-atics" live review

Glass: Classic Malt

Colour: Sunny amber

Nose: Massive alcohol burn, but also Smoke and oak with a hint of wax furniture polish.

Palate: Freshly polished rich aged oak. But needs water.

With 4 drops of water in 2cl: Soft, smooth aromatic oak.

With 4 more drops of water: A little more wood appears.

Finally 4 more drops of water: Lots more very aromatic wood, some honey and a maritime element suggests an old jetty protruding into the Atlantic. A little dusty too.

Finish: Very, very long. It seems to grow on the palate rather than just ending. There's a touch of violet in there too.

Overall impression: Lots of character in this whisky make it a most enjoyable, very good Bunny!

Hart Brothers, Bunnahabhain, distilled 1967, 35y, casks 3323 & 3231, 40.5% ABV

Typical cost of this bottle; €€€€€

Colour: My first impression here is that this is much darker than I expected! I am used to Bunnies being rather pale, this one looks like an old Glenfarclas!

Nose: The nose is also much less maritime than I am used to from bunnies. Those 35 years have really left their mark on this dram! For the third time this week I am left describing the nose of a whisky as having slight hints of liquorice and aniseed. Not at all a typical Bunny!

Palate: Very unusual and unexpected. I really expected a big explosion here. What I received was gentle and almost weak. The flavour corresponds to the nose, slight liquorice and aniseed, but not much else. It is creamy and in a funny way rich, but at the same time, weak in comparison to the promises made by the nose. Some whiskies have a powerful aftertaste, hitting you more than they did in the initial taste. this one is long, but not powerful. That initial flavour stays for a long time, but doesn't get any stronger, it just, well ....., kind of lingers around for a long time.

Overall impression: I am glad I had the opportunity to try this, but I suspect it is quite an expensive dram and to be honest, one which I will not go out of my way to find again. I like Bunnahabhain, but I doubt whether I would pay the price to sample this one again. It is good, but not THAT good.

I have just realised that the Bunny was 40.5%. If this were up around 50% or maybe a little more, then I expect it would have the power I expected from the colour and nose. In that case, it may have been much better than it was.

D. Laing 'Old Malt Cask', Bunnahabhain, distilled 1989, bottled 2006, 50% ABV

Typical cost of this bottle; €€€€€

Nose: Salt, sea-air, seaweed and malt. With a little kelp and even a hint of rubber dingy.

Palate: Another Islay jetty! Sea, smoke, sand. Slightly oily and woody.

With water: More salty with a hint of aniseed.

Overall Impression: Very nice and a very long, salty finish when a drop of water is added.

Weiser, Bunnahabhain, distilled 19.12.1977, bottled 4.5.2006, 28y, 45.1% ABV

'The Whisky Trader' edition, refill sherry butt

Typical cost of this bottle; €€€€€

Nose: Warm liquorice

Palate: Initially dry, but soon turning sweeter with delicate nuts, and gentle fruits

Overall Impression: A jolly good Bunnahabhain, not overpowered by sherry

Wemyss, Peated Bunnahabhain, 1997, 46%

Labelled as 'Sandy Seaweed'

Typical cost of this bottle; €€€€€

Glass: Spiegelau

Colour: Extremely pale, almost like water with just a dash of fresh lemon juice.

Nose: A French cheese stall below decks in the engine room.
Let me explain as it isn't as bad as this may sound; there's definitely an aroma of quite aromatic cheese, plus what I refer to as bilge pumps. I guess this also means the sea, but in a way slightly associated with oily engines.
With a little time the Atlantic sromas come to the fore and the cheese and bilge pumps recede.It also has a slightly sweet nose.

Palate: Initially much stronger on the palate than the nose, quite surprisingly so! I would have also guessed more like 50% than 46% from the tingle and initial alcohol feel in the mouth.
This is a true maritime dram, not so salty as it is slightly more sweet, but the sea is definitely there and with time the nose is getting a little more smoke.

Finish: Long and pleasant.

With a couple of drops of water: The immediate effect of 2 drops of water is to remove the smoke from the nose. As for the palate, the overall flavours are reduced and the finish becomes much shorter.

Overall Impression and comments: This is my first peated Bunny and it is a very pleasant dram. It noses almost like a Caol Ila which happens to be one of my favourite distilleries, but on the palate, it is indeed a different beast altogether.

My recommendation: Forget the water!

Wemyss, Peated Bunnahabhain, 1997, 46%

Labelled as 'Bonfire Embers'

Typical cost of this bottle; €€€€€

Glass: Spiegelau

Colour: Very pale yellow

Nose: A Summer evening in Provence, Tuscany or even in an Alpine Meadow.
My initial thoughts when nosing this dram were of a sweet, slightly perfumed and floral nose, something like a countryside of wild flowers letting off their mixed aromas after a day of hot sunshine.
If I were asked to place this dram only from the nose then I would probably not say Islay. It has floral attributes over a slightly maritime feel, but lacking any real smoke or peat at this stage.

Palate: Surprisingly tame and short. It's really hard to place any distinct flavours other than one of faint liquorice which fades almost immediately.

With 2 drops of water: The nose really doesn't change and as for the palate, this is now much smoother and more creamy in feel, with more of tingle (or spiciness) which I usually associate with younger whiskies, but the finish is considerably longer. The flavour still doesn't say much to me other than faint liquorice and maybe a little malt.
The aftertaste has a very slight elemnt of smoke, but only after a few sips and some time.

Overall Impression and comments: The first of the two Bunnies (Sandy Seaweed) surprised me in a quite pleasant way. This one had a very interesting nose with the floral notes, but the palate disappointed. I would recommend Sandy Seaweed over this (Bonfire Embers), but again, this is my opinion and my palate we are speaking about.
I also had to use the full sample to get the notes correct on the second one, whereas I only had to use half of the sample for the first. Thankfully I have a little left to revisit that one another day.