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.
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Great experience. Wonderful
Not as good as I was hoping. I LOVE the 12 and thought the 18 would be a step up. It’s good don’t get me wrong, but it’s not great, and certainly not from the price @£110. I much prefer glendronach 18 or even the 15 and there both better value too.
I bought a bottle after hours of investigation of Bunna 18, I tried the 12 earlier this year and wanted to go for the 18, because it's widely said to be one of the best 18 out there. The 12 was ok, but the main thing about 12 is the alcohol note, it's a bit high. The 18 is smoother, with more sherry influence.. it says on the back label that it's matured exclusivly in sherry casks, but David Brodie said it's 60% bourbon vs 40% sherry on a distilliation tour @ whisky.com? Anyways, the alcohol note isn't as high as in the 12, the 18 is much better.. that's no secret because it's matured for 6 more years. It's smoother, with more sherry and I am 98,6% sure that bourbon casks was used in the maturation, though the back label spell it differently. I enjoyed it, whiskybase rates it 88% avg, ralfy rates it both 90 and 87 points in his reviews - Scotch 4 Dummies gave it 3.5+. I'm going to give this 4 out of 5, the alcohol note is a little offputting for a 18 year old whisky.. it's not that high but it's prominent, maybe it needed more in the palate to become 'one of the best 18's' as it's said, more smoke perhaps? I am comparing this to Talisker 18 which I had earlier this year, which is a very gentle one. It was voted the best whisky of the year back in 2007 by the World Whiskies Awards... If Talisker 18 had more sherry in it, it would probably be one of the best whiskies of all time, truly unique. Bunna 18 is very good but I was expecting more on the palate. If I could rule I would put more smoke in it. It is slightly peated though, as it's said only 1-4 ppm. Which is a low number for smoke. Anyways, cheers from Iceland!
A classy dram. I'd been highly fond of the affordable nature of Glen Scotia Victoriana of late and they have a lot in common in their sherried sweetness and their gentler approaches to more commonly robustly dealt out Isla style angles. This one is of course twice the price and its elegant approach to meeting very similar aims comes through, not to denigrate the Victoriana which I still merrily churn through, however this Bunnahabhain is just nice little find which I feel could appeal to both keen novices and more seasoned palates and be loved by both. In short, a swirling dance with the more fulsome side of whisky but without being beaten round the gullet with it.
I love peaty scotches, but coming back to this after a few months on the peat blew me away. Amazing depth of flavour that you can chew on while drifting off to sleep.
