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This article was created  by Whisky Magazine in partnership with Bunnahabhain.

The Bunnahabhain Fèis Ìle Canasta Cask Matured

Bunnahabhain celebrates its sherry-cask heritage with a new Fèis Ìle limited release

Fèis Ìle may be over for 2023, but there’s still time to taste the limited-edition Bunnahabhain bottlings specially chosen to mark the occasion.

Following the course of its core-range Stiùireadair and 12 Years Old expressions, Bunnahabhain’s latest limited edition, released to celebrate Fèis Ìle, Islay’s festival of music and malt whisky, offers a taste of a historic sherry-cask maturation style.

The famously unpeated Islay distillery is well known for its use of a high proportion of sherry casks for maturing its new spirit, but the Bunnahabhain Fèis Ìle Canasta Cask Matured is particularly special because it has been aged in sherry casks that once held Canasta Cream, famously produced by the family-owned bodega Williams & Humbert in Jerez.

Unlike the dry oloroso most commonly used to season casks destined for use by the Scotch whisky industry, Canasta Cream is a sweet sherry made from a blend of musts from both Palomino and Pedro Ximénez grapes and resembles the type of sherry commonly shipped in cask to Britain throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Bunnahabhain Fèis Ìle Canasta Cask Matured and Canasta Cream.

Until the practice ended in the 1980s, these sherry shipping casks were often bought by Scotch whisky makers and used to mature their malts. And so, unlike today, it was once common for whiskies to be matured in casks that previously held sweet sherries like Canasta Cream.

Thus, Bunnahabhain Fèis Ìle Canasta Cask Matured is a novel whisky not just on account of it being an unpeated Islay single malt, but because it’s been aged in casks that would’ve seemed very familiar to its founders in 1881. Of course, like all Bunnahabhain whiskies, it’s also been bottled non-chill filtered and with only its natural, cask-derived colour.

We think there can be no better opportunity to experience the differences between these two maturation styles first-hand than by tasting the 12 Years Old and Canasta Cask Matured side by side. Thankfully, though the Festival is over, the Canasta Cask Matured remains available to buy online from good retailers and at Bunnahabhain.com – for a limited time only.

Bunnahabhain

Fèis Ìle Canasta Cask Matured
Distell International

ABV: 51.2%
Style: Single malt
Country: Scotland
Region: Islay
Price per 70cl bottle: £95
Bottling: Distillery
Availability: Good retailers and online at Bunnahabhain.com

Nose: Classic sherried nose; sweet and caramelised fruits, honey roasted nuts, waves of cinnamon and clove with a hint of rancio.

Palate: Maple syrup leads with creamy vanilla, dried figs, poached pears and a sprinkle of cocoa. A gentle twist of orange appears in the background.

Finish: Long and sweet with notes of brown sugar, red apples and vanilla custard.

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