Bunnahabhain Abhainn Araig
Fèis Ìle 2022 Release | 50.8% ABV
Score: 6/10
Good stuff.
TL;DR
Good stuff yes, but unfortunately not great value
To festival or not to festival
As an average whisky punter with a modest whisky budget, one of my monthly rituals is to figure out how much I can spend on bottles for the month when my pay check lands in my bank account. After, of course, budgeting for other essentials like mortgage, food, and so on.
This little ritual entails asking questions like: should I buy that New Bottle that just came out last month that’s still available, or should I hold off in case something else enticing comes out during the course of the month? Because these days, there is something released every month that is fairly enticing. First world problems entirely, of course, and I’m very lucky to be able to have such “problems.”
I gather that most folks who attend Fèis Ìle also face similar first world problems regarding which special bottles to purchase. I’ve never been to the Islay Whisky Festival – or Fèis Ìle in Scottish Gaelic, simply meaning island festival – but would like to attend some day. Although, I anticipate that it might be a one-and-done for me. As a slight introvert, seeing photos on social media of the queues and crowds gives me some heebie-jeebies, but they’re the necessary flip side of what from all accounts are the positive vibes, music, and pleasure surely had by most. I would enjoy the week, no doubt, but would probably take me two weeks to recover.
Fèis Ìle began back in the mid-1980s with a group of Islay residents formed a committee to boost tourist numbers on the island and came up with the idea for the festival. It might seem unbelievable today, but there was only one whisky tasting at that first festival, which otherwise focused on walks, ceilidhs, and history talks. It was only in 2000 that the distilleries became more involved in the festival and began their own festival special edition bottlings. As the 2000s progressed each distillery would come to have its own special Open Day on a particular day of the festival. And its own special bottle for that year’s festival.
I’ve never gone to the trouble of seeking out a Fèis Ìle special edition, despite a few of my absolute favourite distilleries being located on the island. I see the Caol Ila, Kilchoman, Ardbeg and other bottles make their way onto the market every year, and don’t get me wrong – they usually look interesting. It’s not for lack of interest that I usually don’t trouble myself. If you don’t either, perhaps it’s for the same reason: price.
Not just price, actually, but value. Am I looking at a good value proposition with the 2023 Lagavulin 14 year old, cask strength finished in Armagnac casks, for £220? Or the NAS Ardbeg Heavy Vapours – whose USP was that it was distilled without the normal still purifier – for £120? Or Kilchoman’s cask strength small batch three cask (one ex-sherry, two ex-bourbon) also for £120? All sound good and interesting, but the value proposition is a bit of a stretch.
Of course, these are precisely meant to be special bottles: one-offs, limited in number, and collectible for those who collect. I don’t at all blame any of them for running a business, nor do I judge those who like collecting each year’s bottles from their favourite distillery. But, I’m not a collector in that sense. I’m an intrepid palate explorer standing on the bow of my ship, hand to my forehead shading my eyes as I lookout for the next destination on the flavour chase.
I vote with my wallet, which usually means my votes go elsewhere, even to many of these distilleries’ own core ranges instead. And, it means that I usually do not partake in the festival vicariously in spirit (see what I did there? I’ll see myself out) through one of these bottles.
Review
Bunnahabhain Abhainn Araig, Fèis Ìle 2022 release, 50.8% ABV
£95 retail, (£60 at auction)
All that said, you’ll see that I’m obviously full of b.s. because I did pony up for this 2022 Bunnahabhain Feis Ile bottling from last year.
However, I was lucky enough to find this at auction a while back for a fraction of the regular retail price, which we’ll come back to later. But, for now, let’s see what Bunnahabhain and Distell (now CVH) put together for last year’s festival.
The bottle helpfully gives a bit of cask information: small ex-PX octave casks were combined with Oloroso and bourbon matured spirit. There’s no age statement and the bottle doesn’t give proportions of the cask make-up, but we have a bit of information nonetheless.
Score: 6/10
Good stuff.
TL;DR
Good stuff yes, but unfortunately not great value
Nose
Spices such as nutmeg, star anise, and cinnamon, cocoa powder, pine oil, and faint oak quality. A slight chalkiness that I get on some Bunnahabhains, and a hint of spirity youthfulness, although not off-putting. Some sherry characteristics but by no means a sherry bomb. Nice and welcoming.
Palate
Cinnamon, honey, and some youthful vibrancy. A chocolate quality carries from the nose to the palate, although here it’s more bitter dark chocolate, alongside some oak, apple and citrus sweetness, and even a faint wine quality. Some maltiness and a distant dunnage quality.
The Dregs
It so happened that I have a couple of other official Bunna bottles open at the moment, and so I did a wee comparison of this Abhainn Araig with the standard 12 and the 2022 12 year old cask strength. ABV-wise this makes some sense, as the ABV of the Abhainn Araig is roughly mid-way between the 56.6% of the 2022 cask strength and the 46.3% standard 12.
This performs as you might expect against these other drams. Going between this and the 12 year old cask strength, the 12 is thicker, oilier, bigger, bolder, and more sherried. This can, of course, at least partially be chalked up to the higher ABV of the 12, but the flavour profile itself is bolder.
Going right back to the Abhainn Araig, it tastes mostly bourbon matured in comparison. And, perhaps it is: we don’t have the exact proportions of cask make-up here, but going back and forth between the two gives this impression. The standard 12 also stands up well to this, even if it tastes a little less bold.
The Abhainn Araig feels like there’s a bit more going on than in the standard 12, but the youthful vibrancy (which mostly works, mind you) is tamed a bit more in the 12 year old. The sherry influence on the standard 12 is good, but feels like slightly more of an overlay compared to the integration and balance in the Abhainn Araig. All three are very enjoyable, and a nice comparison of different takes on Bunnahabhain’s distillate.
I’ll confess that it’s a bit disappointing giving a 6/10 to something from my beloved Bunnahabhain, as I’d love to give ‘em all 7/10 and above. And you may recall that for us 6/10 is good – literally! But I’ve gotta call it like I see it.
The standards for Bunna are high, and it’s inevitable that not every bottle from our favourite distilleries is going to be a banger. I’m going with a 6/10 because this feels a bit better than average which is 5/10 for us. There’s one caveat, however; this isn’t, as our scoring guide lists for 6, “priced fairly” and “encouraged as a solid purchase.”
So let’s finish by talking about value. Regular retail on this is £95. That’s right, nine-five. Nueve cinco. This Abhainn Araig is a good dram. Good, but not great. There’s perhaps not as much complexity here as I’d hoped for. Despite a partial and more intensive octave cask maturation (and PX octaves at that) included here, I can’t say that I can pick it out easily. Maybe more sophisticated palates than mine can.
On one hand, you could argue that that shows some nice balance in the blending. But, if this is the unique selling point for this special edition, and it’s not creating a really unique, novel dram, then can’t say this is really a good value proposition. At £95, I’m glad I didn’t pay that and instead found it at auction for £60. You can get the 18 year old for about £25 more, which I would suggest is a much more interesting and satisfying proposition than this.
I imagine that this is one of the reasons why, over a year later, that this limited edition is still available in the UK. If I’m going to drop £95 on a bottle, it better offer me something worthwhile, different, and unique that I can’t readily get anywhere else. That’s not the case here. The Bunnahabhain qualities that are here I can get better in the belter 12 year old cask strength for a cheaper price, for now.
So, I’ll keep on my Bunnahabhain journey seeking out value where I can find it, reaching for this dram sometimes, but for others more often.
Score: 6/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. DD
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