Bunnahabhain 10 Year, Chieftain's Sherry Butt #466
Bunnahabhain, Islay’s northernmost distillery. When I saw this malt on the shelf, a 10 year Indie Bunna aged in one sherry butt, I was close to speechless. A competently & unsulphured sherry aged Bunnahabhain is something to behold. Then I saw the price on the side of the packaging: $89.99. Now I was virtually speechless. Gem independently bottle Scotch single malt from storied distilleries are becoming more and more scarce. Then I removed the bottle from its packaging...and the color...I was literally speechless.
I have never seen a darker 10 year old whisk(e)y. I’ve seen, and tried 50 year old+ single malts that don’t possess this color (naturally). Keep in mind this is an independently bottled 10 year Bunnahabhain, bottled by Chieftain’s, naturally colored and unchill-filtered. The sherry butt that this Bunna was put into was either wet as Hell or was from the darkest PX ever produced. To achieve this color, Islay must have had some warm summers, or winters, during the 2000’s. The marriage between spirit and cask for this Bunnahabhain was a wise betrothal.
Or so I thought.
Bunnahabhain 10 Year, Chieftan’s
ABV: 46% // 92 proof
Age: 10 years
Vintage: 2001
Distillery: Bunnahabhain
Distilled: September 2001
Bottled: August, 2012
Bottle: #778
Cask: #466
Barrels: Sherry Butt
Color: 72% dark chocolate reduction
Non-chill filtered, Natural Color
Nose: Screams PX. Date and raisin reduction covered salted fudge. Melted butter over salted caramel. A pinch of cinnamon & clove over a dollop of wet Muscovado sugar dropped into Pedro Ximenez Sherry. Some rum soaked fruits & gingersnap cookies further in the back under the smallest whisper of smoke. Truly one of the most sultry, rich sherried 10 year old Single Malts I have ever encountered.
Palate: Medium. Sherry, brown sugar & medium spices towards the back of the palate. Bunna salt does show up in typical fashion dusted all over big sultry sherry notes but this doesn’t drink quite like 46%. Drinks hot unfortunaley, albeit with some nice mixed baking spices.
Rather disappointing to be honest. Not much going on and pretty two dimensional. Perplexing.
Finish: Medium//Short finish. Distinct grape note with PX sherry but just slightly bitter and disappointingly shorter than I would have assumed 10 years in a (likely PX) sherry butt.
Bourbon and House Rating: 82
This is almost worth the 89.99 I paid, for the nose alone but I gave this an 82 because Bunna has SO MUCH more potential than this. Would of loved to of seen this at cask strength..or perhaps the PX was too much for this batch of Bunna distillate? Maybe the summers were a little too hot on Islay in the 2000’s…..
🥃🥃