Tasted these Islay boys and girls decent 6 months ago, at last this review is finished.
Bunnahabhain 1989/2013 cask #386065 Duncan Taylor 49.0% - the so called octave finish (smaller cask where maturation is much quicker due to the smaller volume).
Nose: nice, fresh and fruty with honey accent.
Taste: relatively dry, sharp and lemony. Haven't found any peat, maybe 0.5 ppm.
Finish: oaky bitterness. Good dark horse for a blind tasting, spotting Islay spirit here would be complicated :)
Overall: nice whisky, but not to my personal liking, I'd prefer Bunna either old and sherried or young and peaty. Could be 3-rd fill, I don't feel 23 years of maturation here.
Score = 22 21 20 21, 84/100!
Nose: nice, fresh and fruty with honey accent.
Taste: relatively dry, sharp and lemony. Haven't found any peat, maybe 0.5 ppm.
Finish: oaky bitterness. Good dark horse for a blind tasting, spotting Islay spirit here would be complicated :)
Overall: nice whisky, but not to my personal liking, I'd prefer Bunna either old and sherried or young and peaty. Could be 3-rd fill, I don't feel 23 years of maturation here.
Score = 22 21 20 21, 84/100!
Nose: fruity again but on pear and peaches this time.
Taste: quite pale, some grassy and bittery notes.
Finish: short and dry with touches of wet carton, bad cork in this one?..
Overall: the same story, the nose is promising, but the finish spoils the game. Seems like the casks were ... a bit tired.
Score: 22 20 20 21, 83/100!
Maybe it's something wrong with me, not with whisky, I didn't have official Bruichladdich of that age at home, so opened a bottle of 18 yo Bunnahabhain 43% (previous release, modern one is bottled at 46.3%).
Bunnahabhain XVIII 43% - competely different colour. Looks like there was enough sherry butts in a batch. Or enough E153a :)
Nose: nuts, sherry, touches of salt and sea. Lovely.
Taste: rich and dense with light peatiness, sweet, oily, spicy and tad woody. And only 43% strength!
Finish: long, dry and peppery.
Overall: one of the best regular Islay malts with great balance and unusual combination of fruits, sherry, salt, peat and pepper. Recommended! Tasted 25 yo recently, 18 yo at least won't yield to it!
Score: 22 22 22 22, 88/100!
Nose: nuts, sherry, touches of salt and sea. Lovely.
Taste: rich and dense with light peatiness, sweet, oily, spicy and tad woody. And only 43% strength!
Finish: long, dry and peppery.
Overall: one of the best regular Islay malts with great balance and unusual combination of fruits, sherry, salt, peat and pepper. Recommended! Tasted 25 yo recently, 18 yo at least won't yield to it!
Score: 22 22 22 22, 88/100!
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