Bunnahabhain 14 Year Old SMWS 10.188, Feis Ile 2020

Bottled Exclusively for Islay Festival 2020

Aged for 14 Years
One of only 489 bottles worldwide.
Cask type: Refill Ex-Sherry Butt

A collective 'oooohhhh...' then awed hush from the Panel as they encountered mushroom-accented cough mixtures before a big enveloping hug of old school, oxidative sherry. Touches of aged sherry vinegar, bitter chocolate, damp earthen floored dunnage, pipe tobacco, hessian, lamp oil, game meats and Dundee cake. A curtain of luscious rancio drawn across everything.

Add water and there's dates, prune juice, sooty chimney dust, beef stock, miso broth, very old balsamic, strawberry laces, pinecones, petrichor, trampled ferns and blackcurrant cordial. Some pickled walnuts and bitter espresso too.

The mouth is divine! Old salty solera wood, bitter herbal essences, cumin powder, rye bread, ginger and nibbling tannins.

With water there's mole sauce, robust nuttiness, the salinity of surf-washed pebbles, green walnut wine, herbal medicines, caramelised brown sugars, tarragon and celery salts. Pure, filthily wonderful, old-style sherried perfection!

Distilled at Bunnahabhain distillery, Bottled by SMWS - Scotch Malt Whisky Society