Bunnahabhain 11 Year Old 2004 Rubha a’ Mhail

Bunna keeps releases malts with impossible names… Rubha a’ Mhail should be pronounced ‘roo-a-val’ and is the name of one of the lighthouses close to Bunnahabhain, some 6 kilometers to the north on the northern coast of the island, lit for the first time in 1859. I digress. The bottle was one of the two released by the distillery for Feis Ile 2015 and matured on Manzanilla sherry casks.

Hello? That is a weird nose. I get sweet sherry notes in the guise of plums and sultanas, but also salted peanuts and baby breath that dominate the nose. Nice and creamy but at the same time pretty yeasty as well, if you know what I mean. Chocolate with praline filling. Some wet earth and… err… rotting grapes (not an off-note!). Weird and probably not for everyone.

Creamy on the palate and pretty dirty, while the sherry kicks in with orange peel, candied ginger and rich honey. Midpalate a fiercely salty note appears as does some woodsmoke. This is not for the faint hearted, I can tell you that.

The finish is medium long, on honey and fruit, but at the death it’s mostly nuts – peanuts! – that rule.

Intriguing, but not easy. This was work. But worthy.

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