Bunnahabhain 7 Year Signatory, Refill Butt
Bunnahabhain needs no introduction, nor does this malt. The saltiest, most maritime forward, heavily peated Bunna I have had the excruciating pleasure of encountering. The “Refill Butt” means sherry, or at least spanish wood, but the Bourbon notes in the bottle suggest “Kentucky”. Regardless the butt was clearly refilled more than once, or perhaps twice, as any sherry influence is virtually non existent.
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Bunnahabhain 7 Year, Signatory
Distillery: Bunnahabhain
ABV: 46% // 92 proof
Age: 7 years
Vintage: 2008
Distilled: January 23rd, 2008
Bottled: July 31tst, 2015
Bottle: #640
Cask: #128
Barrels: Refill Butt
Color: Lemon Water
Non-chill filtered, Natural Color
Nose: Savory, sour & salted. Biggest salty, maritime malt I've tried to date. A little ocean water must have spilled into this cask which aged next to a well seasoned BBQ pit charred with meaty soot and lemon flesh. Marinated, grilled meats with the sharpest freshly squeezed lemon juice, pestled oceanic sea salt and maritime peat fighting for domination. Crushed cherry Sweet Tarts, Flintstones Kid vitamins. Truly one of the most multi-dimensional young peated noses I’ve encountered.
Palate: Full bodied, richly textured, oily & dense - The most mesmerizing combination of “smooth and peat”, which aren’t common bedfellows. Bourbony, screaming Kentucky now - sweet vanilla & creamy butter - vanilla butter. Black pepper & kelp. Hints of the squeezed lemon circle back. Velvet over the dank, herbaceous lemon tinged peat, but the peat smoke billows through the velvet nonetheless. A sharp nip of spirit on the back of the palate but with just enough cask influence to keep things in check.
Finish: Long, but delicate. Oils run and run; syrupy almost. Quiets down, but the burning peat embers burn on & on, with tendrils of beautiful peat smoke billowing on & on. Dank herbs, resiny marijuana, wet vegetation, vanilla cream and lemon murienge. Seashells freshly picked off the beach. The BBQ soot shows back up one last time with a little kerosene and firepit embers. Thick, chewy and oily till the last moment - Bunna fans will adore this.