Two Bunnahabhain of good age


July 16, 2021

Summer Duets Two Bunnahabhain of good age (this to flooded Germany and Belgium)
They aren't rare but they're often superb, whilst some rare or expensive stuff is almost always either nasty or really too pedestrian. No I won't quote any names.

Bunnahabhain 33 yo 1987/2021 (49.5%, Maltbarn, sherry cask)

Oh my god the 1987s are already 33, the age of Christ. Colour: gold. Nose: proper good refill sherry and rather a lot of one of malt whisky's main ingredients, time, which would translate into overripe apples, mint, camphor and natural old beeswax. Pollen too, williams pears, a little barley syrup, then something around fig wine and oriental pastries (orange blossom, almonds, honey, rosewater…) A fresh box of Turkish delights straight from Istanbul's old Atatürk Airport (pre-Erdogan); also some old furniture polish. An awesomely 'antique', I was about to add 'Turkish' nose. Mouth: totally coherent, just even more on beeswax and resinous dried fruits, small figs, dates, prickly pear chips. There's a lot of honey, touches of cedarwood, and indeed once again something oriental, rather more towards mint tea this time. With pine nuts inside, please! Finish: medium, honeyed and waxy, with very moderate woodiness and a little orange wine in the aftertaste. I'm not talking about skin-contact white wine, I'm talking about wine made out of orange, mind you. Resinous and mentholy aftertaste. Comments: seemed a wee tad fragile here and there but it always got back very elegantly.
SGP:561 - 89 points.

Bunnahabhain 28 yo 1991/2020 (50.5%, The Perfect Fifth, 165 bottles)

This one's younger but the strength's a little higher, so we have it as #2. Some kind of logic is always needed, is it not. Colour: straw. Nose: a similar style but this one's more herbal, less honeyed, probably a little brighter and with more citrus and even a little seaweed. Almost another generation of Bunnahabhain, rather tenser and indeed brighter. A little chalk. With water: damp chalk, mud, moss, lemons and citrons, kelp and crabs, fresh bread… All things that we usually enjoy. Mouth (neat): even more so, this is very tight, a little smoky, certainly mineral, lemony, kind of 'muddy' in a good way, a little sooty, grassy, slightly fermentary… If you like, we're rather more in the cluster of HP, Cly, Spr and all. Which couldn't be bad news. With water: perhaps the missing link between the gentler praline-led older batches and the newer, tighter, more coastal, more phenolic style of Bunnahabhain. I'm finding this pretty perfect, while it would go on and on with green citrus and earthy herbs. Finish: Comments: pretty much a surprise but we did try these batches at the distillery when they (and we) were younger. Glad that they found their way… to our tasting glass. Superb whisky, I'm afraid these batches are now to be taken very seriously. Extremely seriously.
SGP:563 - 91 points.

Check the index of all Bunnahabhain we've tasted so far