58,1°
Distillery : Bunnahabhain - Islay
Bordeaux Red Wine Casks
Original Bottling
Limited Edition
Single Malt
Bottled in 2018
Unchillfiltered, Uncoloured, Cask Strength
Peated around 40 ppm
On paper, ageing whisky in Bordeaux wine casks may seem like a good idea. In the end, it doesn't always work, the influence of the wine can give an unpleasant acidity, you have to find the right balance with the distillate, and you have to make sure it sells, because maturing in wine casks has a bad reputation. This is why this expression is the result of a daring experiment. It was aged entirely in red wine barrels from the Bordeaux region for 9 years. On arrival, 4,536 bottles found their way to the shelves.
Let's Taste It :
Bewitching smoke and charcoal, dust and earth, liquorice and soot. The peat is intense and cavernous, but not mineral or iodised as usual. After a while, it's creamy, like blueberry pie. Burnt toffee, oak bark. On the palate, the fruit is more intense, cherry and blackcurrant, blackberry, muscat grape. Then spices, nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper. Heather. It's greedy. Meat sauce. Long finish, where the fruit swells, with humus and chocolate, a hint of clove. It's a bit syrupy.
In Short,
The maturation is well done, there's no acid aftertaste, and it's quite balanced. However, we lose the hallmarks of the distillery, the hint of iodine and the beautiful minerality that is its identity. The nose is too austere for my taste, and the red wine casks mask the power of the product. 9 years is not a good age, in my opinion. Too old to be powerful enough, but still too young for the distillate to interact with the cask and create a nice subtlety. So, for me, it's a mixed experience. And when I see the price it's sold for, I say no way. But absolute fans of the distillery may find it to their liking.
Score : 88
To Be Listened While Sipping :
The Broken View - Something Better
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