Bunnahabhain 8yo Heavily Peated (Gordon & MacPhail)
Bunnahabhain is an Islay distillery, but they’re not exactly known for their peated whiskies. Quite the contrary. However, they do distill peated whisky every once in a while. Their own Toiteach expression is peated for example, and there are also plenty of independent bottlings of Bunnahabhain with a smokey edgy, such as today’s 8 year old expression bottled by Gordon & MacPhail.
Bunnahabhain 8yo (43%, Gordon & MacPhail, The MacPhail’s Collection)
Nose: Sauerkraut and straw with touches of smoked bacon and rubber. Vanilla and nuts in the background, as well as fruitier notes of ripe banana.
Taste: Wood smoke and peat dominate at first, much peatier than the nose suggest and fairly bold in that way. Some sugar water and green apple as well.
Finish: Medium in length peat, rubber and vanilla.
Rating: 82
A more than decent peated Bunnahabhain, which could serve as a nice introduction to peated whisky. It is certainly priced that way at around 40 euro.
Sample provided by Gordon & MacPhail
Thijs is a spirits writer and accredited liquorist from The Netherlands. He runs the blog Words of Whisky and contributes to a number of Dutch and international publications.
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