Bunnahabhain 18yo
Official Bottling | 46.3% ABV
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
Walking the tightrope between scores, but ultimately edges higher
Finding my inner JOMO
Early this past summer, as I stood looking at the shelves of the whisky closet groan and bow (I wonder how many more bottles that shelf can take?), I realised that it was finally time to draw a mental line in the sand.
Or a line in the dirt of the mental dunnage warehouse.
The shelf creaked ominously as I stepped away from it. I tried to minimize my movements in the room. I stood there staring at the bottles on the shelves, the floor, and considered other bottles tucked away in other rooms. While the solution was obvious; I stood there for a minute, arm under elbow supporting chin and forefinger in “thinking face” mode, considering my options. Alas, there was only one.
One that I’d not done since getting into whisky some six years ago. One that I didn’t want to admit to myself. Mrs. Dunmore walks in and sees “thinking man” staring at more bottles than he could drink in a decade’s time, and shoots him a look without saying a word, hoping he’s minimally capable of figuring this one out by himself. He lets his arms down, sighs, and says to himself: “it has to be done.” At that moment, dear Dramfacers, the 2025 Bottle Ban came into effect.
As I mentioned earlier this year, I’ve cut my whisky buying down significantly. Severely, even. My last purchase was trying my luck with Batch #2 of the Thompson Brothers Mystery Malt back in July (a nice Torabhaig which I’ve been quite happy with). It was at that point I knew I needed to take a break from buying for a while.
I thought it would be tough. I thought it would be such a brutal stress-test of this habit that’s eaten up so much of my hard-earned dough the last six years that I might break early on. Yet as the new releases came and went, and weeks and months ticked by, I’ve actually found this easier than I thought. While I still have FOMO around some very recent releases, this has also been somewhat balanced by a fair amount of JOMO (Joy of Missing Out). I wonder what that New Release is like, but after sleeping on it I usually find that while I’m still curious about it I can do without it, or more likely, that I already have something that is similar in profile. I feel a small but significant ripple of satisfaction at not having clicked “buy.” I also feel some small sense of accomplishment when I see my bank account growing a bit more.
Ramsay’s recent discussion on the topic really resonated with me in several ways. My bottle buying habits forced a reckoning which spotlighted not only how much I had been spending on whisky over the past six years, but also the opportunity costs of that spending: not planning enough for the future.
While I’ve always prioritised spending time with my partner, family, and friends, much of my cash after that went to whisky. I have a range of other hobbies – hiking in this fantastic landscape that is my adopted home country, cycling, running, camping, reading, going to the occasional gig – but after the up-front costs for gear (boots, waterproof kit, bike, etc) most of these don’t actually cost that much on a regular basis. Running shoes need to be replaced every few months, bike maintenance and servicing say once a year, hiking boots only every several years. Hence more dough I spent on whisky.
Instead, the opportunity costs have been pushed into the future. Also, like Ramsay, I would like to retire a bit early, if at all possible. I’m extremely fortunate to have a job that – most days – I very much enjoy. Many days it’s meh, but on the best days it moves from being a job that brings home a pay check to being a vocation: a career for which I have often felt a calling, and one that I feel particularly suited for.
That said, I probably don’t want to work until whatever the retirement age will be when I get there. Which means that I’ve recently started making some sacrifices in order to increase the likelihood that this is a possibility at some point in the future. Which consequently means that some things have to give now.
Spending fewer experiences with my lovely partner and my fab friends isn’t an option – they are literally my lifeblood. Fewer bottles of whisky then, is by far the easiest and most obvious option; even if there’s still tinges of FOMO and curiosity around new releases. I’m hoping Future Drummond will thank me at some point.
Review
Bunnahabhain 18yo, Official 18yo, Distillery bottling, aged in sherry casks, 46.3% ABV
£110 paid, generally available between £120-145
Today’s bottle is from the creaky shelves of the bunker, purchased over two years ago but only recently opened. This is strange because it’s a core range expression from one of my very favourite distilleries (and judging from our recently updated Top 40 Distilleries, one of yours as well) - and one I’ve wondered about for years. Why did I only open it recently? One reason is probably because I’ve always had a few Bunnahabhains open at any one time. Usually a bottle of the standard 12, and perusing the creaky shelves it appears that I currently have five other Bunnas open: one other official bottling (last year’s port cask Feis Ile) and four indies (three from Cadenhead’s and one of Signatory’s 100º Proof Series). I love the profile of the distillate and I love the many different permutations that it’s capable of doing well (just like one of my other top distilleries, the chameleon Caol Ila), and I’ll confess that a visit to the distillery a couple of years ago helped to solidify my affection for it.
Another reason is that part of me was holding on to it as a Special-Bottle-for-a-Special-Occasion. To be fair, it’s not that special as far as single malts go: while expensive, this is within reach of many folks if we stretch for it, it’s not rare, and it’s generally very available. Yet, it’s an expensive bottle for me - which is why, despite loving the distillery, I held off for years to buy it and only then because I had a discount to help.
More generally, one of my other loose themes this year has been to open bottles I’ve had stashed away because . . . well, whisky is for drinking and, without getting too morbid, we don’t know how long we’ll be here. So, what was my “special occasion” to open this? An ordinary Saturday, spent with my extraordinary partner, after a walk in the sunshine in the ruggedly stunning Scottish landscape not far from our home in Glasgow. One of those days where nothing much happened, but nothing much needed to happen. A day walking in the sunshine, and a reminder that I don’t need a whole lot to be content.
While we’ve reviewed quite a few Bunnas around here over the past few years, to my surprise we’ve not yet reviewed the official bottling 18 year old. Earie reviewed an indy bottling 18 year old earlier this year, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. The back of the bottle tells us that it is matured exclusively in ex-sherry casks (although the type of sherry cask remains a mystery. Oloroso? PX? Some combination?). As with most Distell/CVH Spirits expressions, it’s bottled at 46.3% ABV, and of course unchillfiltered and natural colour.
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
Walking the tightrope between scores, but ultimately edges higher
Nose
Rich sherry swept with coastal air. Faintly musty. Dark chocolate dust. Earthy dunnage. Coffee grounds beside sweet plums on an oak stave. Ever so slightly tannic. A fusile hint in the background, even though it’s unpeated. Booze-soaked Maraschino cherries and mixed nuts, red liqueur with dry barley field maltiness.
Palate
Coastal minerality and a tinge of saltiness. Fine texture and oily mouthfeel for 46.3%. Sweet dates and cherries alongside oak tannins. Smooth coastal salt. A slight dryness coming from the cask tannins, but alongside the juicy sweetness of the sherry influence. A savoury maltiness quality dancing in tandem with the sweetness. Hint of fusile paint thinner in the background. A light chalky minerality again, which I often find on official bottlings of Bunna. Oaky caramel, trace of umami, and maritime breeze.
The Dregs
While this is tasting wonderfully tonight, I’ll confess that as I’ve been tasting this over the last month or so, I’ve wavered between a 7 and an 8. Both are excellent Dramface scores, of course. But some evenings it would have something of a rough edge, even at this age. A rough edge that you’d normally associate with a much younger whisky. This was thankfully never a prominent feature of either the nose or palate, but it was present enough, and I chalked this up to some sub-par casks that were potentially included in the batch. Other evenings, though, this was not noticeable or otherwise overshadowed by the multitude of flavours and sensations swirling around here. Tonight, though, the complexity is shining through and I’m tipping back over into 8/10 territory. So here we are.
It's had to work to get this 8, though, truth be told. A hint of an edge or jaggedness in 18 year old Bunnahabhain should not be a thing. To a fanboy like me (although not an uncritical one), 18 year old Bunnahabhain should be an easy 8/10. And while this bit of an edge hasn’t been prominent enough on enough evenings for it to overshadow everything else on offer here, I have picked it up enough that I feel I should spotlight it for you, dear Dramfacers.
This is a batch-made product, after all, and batch variation is a thing. If I’m interpreting this generously, I say simply that as whisky is a natural product, some batches will inevitably vary more than others and therefore some will taste better than others. If I’m interpreting this more cynically, I might say that having bought this a couple of years back, when the whisky craze was still near its peak, this batch might have had a few more sub-par casks tossed in because… well, they knew it would sell no matter what. I have zero insider information, of course, just my own punter opinion of the scene. Make of that what you will.
As I’ve sat here with this dram for the last hour, finding my way through it and discovering all that it’s offering, exploring its numerous nooks and crannies, I’m confident in saying that this is really very good: complex with loads of flavours on offer, it manages to maintain a striking balance between all of them, and is just simply a pleasure to explore.
I find that I’m getting pickier handing out lofty 8/10s, and I don’t without a lot of consideration. This one just tips over into that category. I suspect that another batch might be a clear 7, or indeed an easy 8. It’s also expensive, no doubt about it. I paid £110 for this two years ago on offer. The distillery’s website has this for £135, and other major UK retailers have this for anywhere between £120 and £146. So not cheap.
That said, the next time I have a gift voucher, or find this on offer (which it sometimes is), I’ll be replacing this bottle when it’s gone. If you fancy treating yourself with the holidays coming up, and if you can find this on a bit of a discount, I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I have. One more to add to your own creaking shelves.
Once in a while, be sure to step away carefully.
Score: 8/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. DD
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