Bunnahabhain Hand Filled Whisky Reviews!

Not one, but two delicious Hand-filled distillery exclusive Bunnahabhains. One from a Manzanilla sherry cask, and one from a bourbon cask - a very rare thing for a Bunnahabhain - which also happens to be peated! 

Bunnahabhain was the first stop on my most recent pilgrimage to the Queen of the Hebrides. We had just gotten off the ferry at Port Askaig in the early afternoon, but it had already been a long day by that point - we'd left Oban ridiculously early for the drive down to Campbeltown, although it was completely & absolutely worth it. As soon as the ferry from Kennacraig had landed at Port Askaig we turned right and headed straight to Bunnahabhain. It was the one distillery I didn't have time to visit on the previous trip, having not had access to a car on that occasion, and this being the least accessible of the nine active distilleries on Islay. So this time that box was the first to be ticked as soon as we arrived! The distillery itself was just as expected - old, dirty, dated, and resembling a Victorian-era prison rather than a distillery. But that aesthetic is all part of Bunnahabhain's charm! Or at least it was until owners Distell finally decided to invest some funds in the distillery in 2019, building a new visitor's centre including a cafe and converting the old cottages into holiday accommodation, but also demolishing four seaside warehouses to make way for the new facilities. Apparently most of the single malt stock will still be matured on the island, so I'm assuming they're building new warehouses to replace them - let's hope they're proper dunnage warehouses!

None of that upgrade/renovation work had been announced when we visited back in late 2018, so the visitor's centre was just a tiny shop nestled next to the famous pier that looks over the water at the Paps of Jura. Just looking at that beautiful view while waves washed over the pebbles below made for a very peaceful & restorative experience after a long day. The shop was well-stocked as well, with a massive range of cask samples available, including small bottles of their new make spirit - something that more distilleries should be offering. They also had a range of distillery exclusive bottlings, both unpeated and peated, from a huge range of cask types, and a "fill your own" cask sitting in the corner. You really couldn't ask for anything more from a distillery shop! But the samples that I'm reviewing here didn't come from there directly - a friend purchased these from an online auction site, which while expensive is basically the only way of getting these distillery-exclusive bottlings without visiting the distillery. Like many of these "Warehouse 9" Bunnahabhain bottlings, they are 200ml bottles - which means they aren't high on the list of priorities for the collectors, investors & speculators who often drive up prices on the auction sites. So this friend scored quite a good deal, even with the added costs of shipping, Australian customs, and DHL courier fees factored in. Luckily for us, he was also generous enough to share them!

What we have here are two "Warehouse 9" distillery exclusive 200ml bottlings of Bunnahabhain. One is an unpeated 10-year old from a manzanilla sherry cask, and one is a peated 16-year old from a bourbon cask. Both were fully matured in said cask type, and bottled at cask strength without chill filtration or added colouring. Neither of these cask types is often seen from this distillery, but there was a manzanilla sherry cask matured bottling back in 2020 which I've reviewed here which was quite a dirty, funky whisky, but the Bunnahabhain spirit worked very well with the salty, nutty, dry & acidic manzanilla sherry. Manzanilla is a pale sherry that is "biologically aged", meaning it matures under a yeast layer known as "flor" that naturally forms in the casks, as opposed to the "oxidative" ageing of the darker sherries where this flor layer doesn't form or is killed off. As uncommon as a fully matured manzanilla sherry cask Islay whisky is, the second bottling in this review is much, much rarer. For starters, a 16-year old peated Bunnahabhain single malt is not something you see every day, most of their peated single malts are bottled young, generally under 10-years of age. But believe it or not, a bourbon cask matured Bunnahabhain is even more unusual! Unlike just about every other distillery in Scotland these days, bourbon cask whisky is basically something that Bunnahabhain doesn't do in their official bottlings. They seem to much prefer to use first-fill or refill sherry casks, or occasionally refill hogsheads, while bourbon cask Bunnahabhains in the realm of the independent bottlers, e.g. the SMWS and a couple of others, but even then this is still an uncommon thing. Time to give these littlies a go, then!

Bunnahabhain Hand-filled Manzanilla cask, 10-year old, 55.1%. Islay, Scotland.

Single cask #3201, unpeated spirit fully matured in a manzanilla sherry cask, bottled late-2019. Non-chill filtered, natural colour, 200ml.  

Colour: Copper.  

Nose: Rich, semi-dry & nutty. Very Bunnahabhain so far, then! Fresh yeasty, salty & tangy manzanilla sherry, some honeyed oak & black pepper. Honey-roasted peanuts, but savoury rather than sweet. Touch of fennel, light brine and a few warm chestnuts.  

Texture: Heavy weight. Rich, oily, semi-dry, cleaner than expected. No heat at all. 

Taste: Rich nutty entry, with salted caramel-coated peanuts, a touch of light olive brine and honey-roasted ham. White pepper and a hint of dried tropical fruit - dried mango? 

Finish: Medium-long length. Fresh salty, tangy manzanilla, more chestnuts and light brine. Walnut skins, pinch of paprika, and dry oak. Black pepper, liquorice, honey-roasted ham and a touch of yeasty, crusty sourdough bread. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Lovely stuff. Bunnahabhain and manzanilla casks seem to be a match made in heaven! This is actually much cleaner and far less funky than the Manzanilla cask general release that I mentioned above, there's no sulphur here at all. And it's a touch lighter and sweeter in comparison as a result. Lovely oily texture, plenty of depth and complexity, but with a good amount of cask influence. We need more pale sherry cask whiskies! Salty, nutty, dry Bunnahabhain seems to love a salty, nutty, dry sherry cask. Who'd have thought! More please!

Bunnahabhain Moine Hand-filled Bourbon Cask, 16-year old, 55.4%. Islay, Scotland.

Single cask #300073, heavily peated spirit fully matured in a bourbon barrel, bottled late-2019. Non-chill filtered, natural colour, 200ml. 

Colour: Bright pale gold. 

Nose: Buttery, creamy & earthy. Melted salted butter, soft earthy peat - let's make that peat embers, actually. Touch of brackish sea water, a whiff of sulphur - that's a surprise, but it's only light. Salted caramel fudge, pistachio nuts, and dried green chilli flakes without the heat, i.e. no seeds. 

Texture: Medium weight. Rich, buttery, salty - and cheesy! No heat at all. 

Taste: Starts soft and buttery, then a huge chunk of hard blue cheese (stilton) whacks you in the face! That was unexpected! Luckily I'm a blue cheese fan. There's also dusty dry peat, but it's quite gentle & integrated after that 16-years of maturation. White pepper, hint of sweet shellfish and toasted vanilla bean. 

Finish: Long length. More salty blue cheese, touches of creamy vanilla custard and melted salted butter. Soft dry, earthy & dusty peat, creamy caramel fudge, touch of tropical fruit - over-ripe melon. Still quite cheesy too, right through to the end. 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: Well that was a surprise! I've only found blue cheese notes in whisky a few times previously, and it's going to be an acquired taste - much like blue cheese - although I personally don't mind it at all. This is far beyond the cheddar cheese notes you find in some Kilkerrans or occasionally a Bruichladdich, this is much saltier and funkier, and I didn't expect to find it in a bourbon cask Bunnahabhain! Is that a product of some sulphur in the spirit, perhaps? It's unlikely to be from the cask in this case. Maybe a product of slight sulphur combined with the salty, nutty & semi-dry spirit character then. Or maybe the empty cask was left sitting for too long before it was filled with spirit, so there was some bacterial involvement? Either way it's intriguing! I've had the pleasure of trying another peated bourbon cask Bunnahabhain before, and it had no sign of this blue cheese note in it, so I'm stumped. It does work for my palate, but you're going to need to like blue cheese, or you'll probably run for the hills!

Overall Notes: Two completely, totally, hugely different Bunnahabhains here. One is much more what you'd expect from the label, while the other is a complete curve-ball! Both are very enjoyable though, and they show two opposite ends of the Bunnahabhain spectrum, bypassing the distillery's modus operandi that is the Oloroso sherry cask. Despite my love of peat and my fondness for blue cheese, the unpeated manzanilla sherry cask is the clear winner here. By a mile. Having tasted a few examples now, it's clear that Bunnahabhain works very well with the pale, dry, biologically aged sherries that don't get enough attention from the Scotch whisky industry. Fino, manzanilla, amontillado, and palo cortado sherry casks need more time in the spotlight!

Cheers!