Bunnahabhain 14 Year Old 1991 The Ultimate

Bunnahabhain is Gaelic for ‘mouth of the river’ and can be found north of Port Askaig on Islay, founded in 1881. Their whisky is considered to be among the lightest of the island peat-wise (if we make abstraction of their young and feisty Stoaisha releases). Today we’ll try a single sherry butt that was releases by the Dutch company van Wees in their popular The Ultimate series.

Oh, boy, what a grand nose! Red and tropical fruit, no joke. But mostly a truckload of sultanas. Not to be confused with raisins, even though they are both derived from the same fruit – Thompson seedless grapes. A raisins is dried naturally, while a sultanq is first drenched in veggie oil and sulfur dioxide to give it its golden color. But I digress… Some farmer’s butter and even milk chocolate. All the way in the back I get a lovely hint of peat, but this is mostly all about fruit. Lovely nose, indeed.

Good mouthfeel. Lovely soft, but far from watery. I get some more peat now as well as woodsmoke and some cloves and nutmeg, giving it some punch. The red fruit retreats, while the sultanas are now easily overpowered by dried apricots and even some papaya. It never loses its quasi tropical character. Towards the end, it even turns a bit candy-like.

The finish is medium long, punchy and even somewhat boozy and leaves the mouth partially dry.

Oh, yes! Grand Bunna, selected by van Wees. Used to be around 80 EUR. If you can still find it, do not hesitate!

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