The Whisky Barrel Bunnahabhain 23 – 1989

I will be visiting some of the latest whiskies bottled exclusively for TWB in the coming weeks (there are 6 such ‘Burns malt’), but I chose to start with this little Bunny 23 year old, 1989 vintage bottled last March (2013). Bunnahabhain is really not the most well known of Islay distilleries, and really lies in the shadows of more hyped (or over hyped some would say) distilleries such as Ardbeg, Kilchoman, Lagavulin , Laphroaig, etc, but IMO they do offer a lovely array of drams, and some Indie bottlings such as this are really lovely, so make sure not to pass on it, since when the PR glitz is over, their malt is superb, too.

TWB Bunnahabhain  , 23 yo , 48.2% , £47.85 (TWB)bunnahabhain-burns-malt-23yo

Nose : Starts rather smoky briny and gentle. Wood hay and mossy logs, in addition to a very gentle fruitiness of melon and other exotic fruit i can not really put my finger on.

Palate:  Very nice stuff going on here: really nice wood smoke. BBQ , meat. Could have been fooled to think its a toned down  Lagavulin. Love this profile.

Finish : Campfire , smoked meat. Malt. Some wood.

A cracking little dram. Loved it, especially that lovely wood smokiness and fruit. Well worth the price, for under 50 quid, this is a steal. really is.

Score: 88/100

official sample provided by TWB

Leave a Reply