Review by: The Muskox

Next from my whisky club’s Bunnahabhain tasting was this phenomenally old expression bottled for this year’s Feis Ile.

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Distillery: Bunnahabhain.

Bottler: Official bottling.

Region: Islay.

ABV: 45.4%. Cask strength.

Age: 32 years. Distilled December 15th 1989. Bottled January 24th 2022.

Cask type: Finished for 6 years in Oloroso sherry casks.

Price: £750

Color: Natural Color. Non-chill-filtered.

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Nose: Rich and sweet with deep jammy fruits, blood orange, dark cherries. Nutty notes of pralines and hazelnuts. Earthy, with musty dunnage and dead leaves, leather and rancio. Slight floral hints and rosemary.

Palate: Medium-thick texture, soft. Arrives with rich deep fruit, apple, fruit leathers, pumpkin (yes, I did drink this on Halloween, I swear it’s in there), then huge rich oak, dunnage, coffee bitterness, tobacco, stonefruit funk, and browned butter.

Finish: Medium, extended development with lasting richness. Bittersweet oak turns to coffee, chocolate, vanilla, dark roasted nuts, and hard caramels. Orange pulp, jam and the vaguest hints of something tropical.

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Possible SMWS bottling name: “Holiday party in the dunnage warehouse”

Conclusion: Very tasty. It’s old rich sherry-matured Bunnahabhain, what more do you want? …well, you could want to pay less than the exorbitant 750 quid that Bunnahabhain’s charging for this, but that’s beside the point. I’d call this more on the “old-oak” side of things than the “old-whisky” side, by which I mean it’s got the robust wood flavour from the age but it otherwise pretty fresh. An excellent colder-weather whisky with all those jammy fruits and deep woody spices. My tasting took a vote on if this was better that the Calvados finish, and this whisky won handily despite my vote. I kept wondering if I even like this better than the 30yo XOP I tried a couple weeks ago… I think I do.

Final Score: 86.

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Scoring Legend:

• 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
• 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
• 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
• 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
• 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
• 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
• 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
• 50-59: Save it for mixing.
• 0-49: Blech.