Bunnahabhain 18 Year Old is a rich, complex beauty who has spent nearly two decades lounging in a mix of sherry and bourbon casks, soaking up all the good stuff. Bottled at 46.3% ABV without chill-filtration or added colouring (because why mess with perfection?), it serves up layers of sweet, fruity, and savoury deliciousness.
Salted caramel leading to sticky toffee pudding sprinkled with nutmeg. With time a leathery quality emerges.
Dense, rich sherried notes perked up with a coastal saltiness. On a second wave roast chestnuts emerge and gentle wood spice.
Woodspice becomes mixed spice. The finish is warming and lengthy; salt and sherry towards the very end.
Bunnahabhain without chill-filtration is dense and oily and shows off its sherried credentials with ease.
This treasure from Bunnahabhain is a must-have! There's a beautiful balance of salt and sherry. A neat pour gives a nose of bread pudding, wet seaweed, white chocolate, sea salt and caramel. The palate is velvety smooth, lending pleasant caramel and maritime flavors that trail into a delightful finish of wood and a hint of salt. Consider this as Bunnahabhain 12's older, more experienced sister. Obviously the longer it sits in the cask, the more flavors it will impart. Those who haven't tried it and are concerned about the saltiness, remember this comes from a distillery at the waters edge on an island that's constantly enduring high winds, rough seas and salt spray. When you're drinking this dram, you're experiencing every moment of every minute of every hour of every day of each year this sat building character. If you're not familiar with Islay, you'll soon find that Bunnahabhain is the exception to the rule. Even if maritime notes aren't typically your fancy, I'd urge you to sample a dram of this from the chaps at Master of Malt! It will change your mind.
Very good non-chill-filtered sherried scotch. Agree with the previous review that it has notes of A'bunadh (when brought down to the same ABV). But definitely more mature than the A'bunadh, so less "rubbing alcohol" there. For sherried, I'd absolutely pay this price for the 18 vs. double that for the Macallan. I'd like to taste-test this against the 15 Sherry Cask from Balvenie but I don't have one on hand.
Smoky , peaty, complexity works in progression , finishes with a subtle floral fragrance on the upper palette . Reminded me of the fireworks in the summer nights of English Bay , before you could look into the exploding spectrum of aura , it dissipates in the hazy skies .
Very little salty. A bit spicy finishing
Really full and lovely stuff - sherry on the nose, deep fruit and slight smoke on the palate and long slightly spicy finish. Much to enjoy and you will be rewarded. Reminded me very much of Aberlour A'bunadh And just a note on the standard of some of the reviewers on other pages here. Arguing over someone else's review on the Internet must surely rank as one of the more pointless human activities. It's sad and disturbing that some reviewers have a fascist bullying mentality that states theirs is the only opinion of worth. No one has the right to jackboot over anyone else's opinions- that's the stuff of extremism and totalitarian dictatorships - and anyone who parts with their cool hard cash for whisky buys the right to express exactly what they think of it, and decide exactly how they drink it. More love and tolerance please; less chauvinism and hubris.
