Bunnahabhain 7 Year Moine Heavily Peated, Signatory
I didn’t start out this year with the goal of reviewing so many single malts from one distillery. But it wasn’t until I picked up my bottle of Bunnahabhain 4 year by Battehill that I not only fell in love with Bunnahabhain but wanted to explore something that few do - single malts under 10 years. After that 4 year Bunna, I decided to combine my journey of exploring younger single malts & my new found love of this highly underrated Islay distillery. With thanks to Total Wine with their several dozen Battelehill bottlings of multiple distilleries that boast a sub 10 year age statement, 3 of which are Bunnahabhains, along with a few other sub 10 year independently bottled expressions from shops around the Bay Area, I’ve decided to task myself with gathering as many expressions of 10 year and under Bunnas and analyzing the difference that even a mere few years, along with different proofs and barrel influences, can yield.
I dont’ think I've been more excited to review a series of whisk(e)y nor have I ever reviewed a series of expressions from one single producer - ever - like I will be with Bunnahabhain over the next couple months
The diversity and complexity in not only 10 year but also sub 10 year single malts can be highly rewarding but the difference that even a year or so can accomplish can be fascinating.
Bunnahabhain 7 Year Heavily Peated, Signatory
ABV: 46% // 92 proof
Age: 7 years
Vintage: 2008,
Distilled: 23.01.2008
Bottled: 31.07.2015
Cask: Refill Butt, #128
Bottle #640
Color: Lemon water
Nose: Savory, sour & salted. Like a brisk morning walk on the beaches of Mendocino, CA. A little ocean water must of spilled into this cask, which must have aged next to a BBQ heavy with leftover BBQ soot, thick on the grill. Sharp lemon, freshly squeezed with crushed sea salt dumped on top of the lemon & the peat sings in harmony. On top of the vivid BBQ soot is vanilla cream, lemon pepper, crushed cherry sweat tarts, Flintstones Kids Fruit Vitamins and more lemon flesh. This is perhaps the most gorgeous representation of a purely Maritime malt I've ever nosed. The peat logs have smoldered down to mere embers as you nose and compliments the aquatic atmosphere this malt offers.
Palate: Full bodied, richly textured and dense. The most mesmerizing combination of “velvety smooth & peat” which wouldn't typically be categorized together. Sweet vanilla, peat & creamy butter. - vanilla butter. Black pepper pops up. Dank herbaceous peat reek in typical Bunna fashion covered in a little lemon juice thats leaked in from the Nose. Oily sea salt compliments the black pepper, with lemon oil, green dank beach vegetation with a sharp nip of spirit on the back palate but with just enough cask influence to keep things in balance.
Finish: Subtley long & oily textured. Quiets down, but the burning peat embers burn on & on, creating tendrils of beautiful peat smoke that continually billow as you exhale. As the peat smoke continues, so does the creamy vanilla & butter that drowns out the black peppers. Thick chewy & oily to the very end and gorgeous by an Islay standard...any standard for that matter - Bunna fans will adore this. Notes of beached wet maritime vegetation, dank herbs, lemon meringue, Kerosene, sea shells, wet Marijuana linger on, all however surpassed in the end by the signature BBQ soot from this single malt.
Truly outstanding and the most gorgeous Maritime-y Bunna I've had to date.
Bourbon and House Rating: 93.5
To no small surprise, this Sig Bunna delivered. At 7 years, its absorbed a very nice balance of flavor from the refill butt, while still maintaining its spirit driven youthfulness. The maritime qualities are what did it for me on this one. I think the lack of flavor left in the first fill cask was a blessing, not a curse, because it really let the terroir and quality of Bunna’s spirit shine through. Less barrel = more spirit influence and, in this case, it worked.
Probably the saltiest malt I've ever encountered from Nose to Finish, oily beyond belief and with some of the dankest maritime vegetation and peat real I've encountered, this Bunna is everything one should expect from a heavily peated sub 10yr Bunna.
Comparing to the 4yr Battlehill Bunna, this one, although not cask strength does display more complexity from the extra 3 years in a cask. Part of this is no doubt due to Signatory not chill-filtering their whisky. The Bunna 7 was wayyyy more salty with more maritime qualities than spirit driven qualities. My suspicion is that both the Bunna 4 and 7 were aged in refill American oak that held sherry, not refill Bourbon, as I originally thought with the Bunna 4. I didn't get really any sherry quality influence from either, although to be fair both malts spent little time in their respective casks.