Bunnahabhain Cruach Mhona Whisky Review!

A travel-exclusive Bunnahabhain with a difference - Cruach Mhona in Gaelic translates to 'Peat Stack' in English. Yes, as you've probably guessed by now, it's heavily peated!

Although they're becoming more common these days, peated Bunnahabhains are still something of an oddity. As one of the two Islay distilleries mainly producing unpeated single malt, those unpeated offerings continue to get the attention, while the peated expressions don't enjoy the 'exposure' of equivalent whiskies from the other Islay distilleries - which could be partly due to the fact that their names are all but unpronounceable to the English speaker! Aside from a few limited releases at cask strength and the annual Feis Ile bottlings that are released under the Moine label (which are generally excellent), there are only two peated expressions in the distillery's core range: Ceobanach, meaning 'Smoky Mist', and Toiteach A Dha, meaning 'Smoky Two' - very imaginative, that name must've been chosen on a Friday afternoon! I'm yet to try the latter, but the former - reviewed here - is delicious, and certainly lives up to it's name. Both of those are bottled at 46.3% ABV. Then there's the one peated travel-exclusive, Cruach Mhona, which is bottled at 50% ABV, and in a 1-litre bottle as well. Even in the midst of the pandemic, there is no shortage of travel retail / duty free exclusive bottlings that are decidedly average. Add some pretty packaging and fancy buzzwords to your slower-moving stock and minimal factual information ("matured in oak casks" is still my favourite - that's a legal requirement for all Scotch whisky, remember), and you've got yourself a travel retail bottling. Not so with this Bunnahabhain, though, because this is one of the few travel exclusive hidden gems at this price point - and if you ask me it's a step above its unpeated duty free stable mate, the wine cask-finished Eirigh Na Greine. Outside of travel retail, this one can be found online for around $150 AUD, or if you're managing to travel overseas it'll be around $110 AUD. And that's for a 1-litre bottle at 50% ABV, remember. Oh, and it's non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. Not bad!

Bunnahabhain is a funny one. It's the most remote of the Islay distilleries and the most difficult to access, involving a surprisingly long drive down a single track road with only a couple of passing places, and involving driving straight past the driveways for both Caol Ila and now Ardnahoe. Once you do get there, though, the atmosphere and - if you're lucky with the weather - the view are stunning, with a pebbled shoreline looking straight across the Sound of Islay to Jura and its famous mountains. Bunnahabhain is still in the midst of a massive refurbishment - progress was delayed by world events, of course - including a new visitor's centre, but also the removal of some of the distillery's shorefront warehouses, although apparently the majority of spirit will still be matured on Islay, and the conversion of eight of the old cottages & houses into holiday accommodation. Bunnahabhain has always been a little rundown and 'unkempt' in appearance, so I can understand why it was overdue for a refresh, but that rough & tumble appearance was also part of the distillery's charm, with a stark difference in comparison to some of the more 'polished' Islay distilleries. So it'll be interesting to see how this renovation goes and if any character has been lost when the project is completed. 

We don't see many of their limited release official bottlings in Australia, but it's hard to leave your average corporate liquor retailer without tripping over the 12-year old. Don't get me wrong, that's a decent whisky when on special for around $90-100 AUD, and it's still the distillery's flagship bottling despite a few reportedly forgettable non-age statement offerings trying to push it off the pedestal - as is the trend for all of the larger Islay distilleries these days. There are plenty of independent bottlings out there though, with both peated and unpeated Bunnahabhains from the likes of Gordon & MacPhail and Signatory Vintage, plus cask strength offerings from smaller bottlers like the SMWS and Elements of Islay being held in high regard. Most of the unpeated bottlings are matured in refill or first-fill sherry casks, and even the official bottlings tend to go with refill sherry or refill casks in their unpeated malts, while it's the peated Bunnahabhains that are more often matured in first-fill or refill ex-bourbon casks. While the sherry casks do seem to work well with the Bunnahabhain spirit, when was the last time you saw an unpeated first-fill or refill ex-bourbon cask from the distillery? They're something of a rarity. Having said that, there's no solid information out there regarding what casks Cruach Mhona has been matured in. So we can safely assume that it was refill ex-bourbon casks, but it could be otherwise. So, Cruach Mhona - meaning Peat Stacks - is a travel exclusive (but not so exclusive during plague times!) , heavily peated, bottled at 50% ABV and presented in a 1-litre bottle. Let's see how it stacks up!

Bunnahabhain Cruach Mhona, NAS, 50%. Islay, Scotland.

Travel exclusive (but now more widely available), heavily peated, 1-litre bottle. Non-chill filtered & natural colour.

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Creamy, nutty, peaty. Dry ashy smoke, dry-roasted nuts, bitter dried lemon and a touch of ginger. Vanilla cream and pineapple - alternating between ripe and sour. Black pepper and quite a bit of charred wood. 

Texture: Medium weight. Oily, creamy and peaty. Warming with a touch of heat - it's at 50%, after all. 

Taste: Creamy and peaty - very creamy in fact! More dry ashy smoke, smoked chilli flakes and bitter dried lemon. Smoked vanilla and more charred wood, which heads towards bitterness. 

Finish: Medium length. Hints of that pineapple from the nose, more ginger and more smoked chilli flakes as well. Dry, chunky, earthy peat. Smoked vanilla, and some bitter chocolate orange, then creamy peat to finish. 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: Pleasant, easy-drinking peated Bunnahabhain that fits in well with the other Islays around this price point. It's not the most complex whisky around, and it does sit on the drier side of Islay, but an easy-drinking peated dram is a nice thing to have in the arsenal - provided you like peat, of course. In general retail this Bunnahabhain is more expensive than the entry-level drams from the other Islays, and it sits in the range of Ardbeg Uigeadail, Kilchoman Loch Gorm and a myriad of independent Islay bottlings (Port Askaig 100 Proof, for example) that can offer more "bang for buck" in terms of character and complexity. But none of those are in 1-litre bottles, which does have to be taken into account! That's the advantage of being intended for duty free only, I suppose, and it's the same situation with Laphroaig PX. Both are absolute bargains at their duty free pricing, but when they're released to general retail - which is a common thing these days - they become more expensive than the competition, until you factor in the extra 300ml of whisky in the bottle. Between the three regularly produced Bunnahabhains, Ceobanach, Cruach Mhona and Toiteach, I'd be reaching for the Ceobanach first. But again, that doesn't come in a litre bottle, and it's "only" bottled at 46.3%. So if you like a larger bottle and a higher ABV, perhaps with a little less complexity, you may feel differently!

Peated Bunnahabhains do fly under the radars of most whisky drinkers, and even those of most Islay fans. And much like Bruichladdich, that's largely because the distilleries are renowned for their unpeated mainstays, which get most of the attention because they're great quality, but also because they're the two unpeated Islay whiskies. When peat comes into the equation those distilleries are taking on the larger brands with their dedicated followings, which is a tougher fight. But when given the attention they're due, both from the distillery and parent company and their customers, the peated offerings from both distilleries can be fantastic. Port Charlotte is a great example which has really exploded in popularity since it was relaunched a few years ago, and it often gets more attention now than the same distillery's marketing behemoth that is Octomore. Maybe we'll see a similar re-launch from Bunnahabhain in future? But they do like to play the quiet achiever, so perhaps not, and we do love them for it.  

Cheers!