When I first seen the PR for the new Elements of Islay, the first thing that caught my eye was the Ma1 expression. I was asking myself, what is Ma?! there’s no distillery on Islay that I know that matches this element, right? After doing some reading online, I figured out it was essentially a peated Bunnahabhain. A peated Bunna is nothing really new, there are quite a lot of those going around the OB and IB circles , so why not bottle one too? Pricing wise this is quite a ‘cheap’ expressions when Elements are considered, even though you have to keep in mind this is a wee 0,5 L bottle. Let’s find out more shall we?
Nose: Quite a lot of soot , pepper and earth with spice and zest , not ultra peaty. Damp soil and peat reek with some wood varnish and sweet dough.
Palate: Spicy entry with crushed peppercorns , chilly and earth, Brazil nuts and , more damp soil and wood, waxy lemon. Dusty.
Finish : Dusty , peaty and warming spices with ash and cocoa beans.
This is quite a different Bunnahabhain, with a lot of spice, pepper and some wood, it’s obviously not very old, and not ultra peaty as well, but it does pack a punch. It’s a few notches down from the lovely Laphraoig and Ardbegs I reviewed last week, but again, it’s much cheaper, so it’s not a fair match. Interesting… But to be honest I’ve had better peated Bunnas.
Speciality Drinks (a sister company of TWE) has introduced 4 new expressions in their highly popular "Elements of Islay" series, this time introducing some "New elements" in addition to a new Ardbeg (Ar6), and Laphraoig (Lp7) : Ln1 (Loch Indaal - a quite heavily peated bruichladdich) and Ma1 (Margadale, heavily peated Bunnahabhain),…
Time for some more TWE 20th anniversary bottlings, with the youngest of the lot. Distilled in 2014, this 4-year-old whisky was matured in a single hogshead and bottled in April 2019 by Signatory Vintage for The Whisky Exchange's 20th anniversary celebrations. In case you're wondering what Staoisha means, it really…
The last (but not least) of the Elements in this batch is yet another first, Ln1. Like the Ma1, this is just another line of peated whiskies from Bruichladdich. As you well know Bruichladdich bottle a few lines of whiskies: Starting from the 'unpeated' Bruichladdich , the heavily peated 'Port…