Bunnahabhain 12yo (46.3%, OB, 2010)

The new presentation for the Islay distillery and wisely now bottled at 46.3% and “un-chillfiltered” and with the ‘natural colour (no spirit caramel added). The higher bottling strength and the lack of chill filtration are significant move in the right direction and demonstrated that they have been listening to their customers. This is worth saying 3 times…

The nose is honeyed with rich warmed apricots, fruit cake and some Oxo cubes in the back ground. There are some good wood spice in the form of a little hessian and cinnamon, it’s quite fragrant. The heaviness of the Oxo cubes and the warmed fruit are a little more assertive and with time the Oxo cubes win. It’s a significantly richer aroma and some what not very typical of Islay whiskies (no peat). The taste is warming, rich and assertive with lots of wood notes in the form of bees wax, bitter cold tea, the hessian and cinnamon. There is also some fragrant heather and chocolate notes. Significantly there is a lack of peat (which does not detract) and the honey notes on the nose are over taken by the wood notes. It’s very nice and quite dry. The finish is long warming and quite dry with all the afore mentioned notes present but the wood notes are quite evident and once again it all works; it’s a great finish.

A change from previous bottlings, the lack of chill filtration, higher bottling strength of 46.3% plus the lack of caramel to dull the taste has produced a very vibrant example.

£27

Score 87 points

Visit Bunnahabhain Distillery at www.bunnahabhain.com