Bunnahabhain 12 Year Old Spring-Summer Collection SMWS 10.295 63.9%

This opened with a spring-summer mix of floral and evergreen perfumes on the nose, notably gorse blossom, heather ale and spruce syrup. Accents of rose and salted blueberry muffins followed. The palate was a generous slice of Dundee cake, alongside sweet soy, plus cookie dough tightly wrapped in rich tobacco leaves. Water introduced scents of fairy bread, a warm wool scarf and cranberry, with the palate becoming a lemon posset, plum and warm pastries with honey. After nine years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, we transferred this to a first fill Spanish oak oloroso hogshead for the remainder of its maturation.

Bunnahabhain has a stunning coastal location by the Sound of Islay to the north east of the island. In 1881 William Robertson founded Bunnahabhain along with the brothers William and James Greenless. The Islay Distillers Company Ltd was then merged with William Grant & Co in 1887 to form Highland Distilleries Company Limited. After one take over and another sale this popular distillery is now owned by Distell International Ltd. Bunnahabhain is the first distillery on Islay to boast a net zero production output. A new visitors centre has also been opened there. The core range consists of the 12, 18 and 25 year olds newly packaged as well as a 40 year old. Demand for their peated whisky has grown considerably in recent years so in 2017 the peated Striuireadair was released quickly follow by the Toiteach a Dha in 2018. There have also been numerous independent bottlings and in 2021 a cask strength 12 year old single malt was released.

Discover more great Islay Whisky here