Bunnahabhain 8 Year Old The MacPhail’s Collection (43%, Gordon & MacPhail, Heavily Peated, 2016)
- Category: Islay single malt scotch whisky
- Origin: Bunnahabhain Distillery
- Bottling: Gordon & MacPhail – The MacPhail’s Collection
- ABV: 43%
- Cost: £30.25
- Score: 83/100
What they say:
The MacPhail’s Collection from Bunnahabhain Distillery
Peated
8 Years Old, Strength 43%
COLOUR
Pale Gold.
Body
Medium.
Finish
Medium and smoky.
Cask Type
Refill Sherry Butts.
Style
Light Islay Dram.
Tasting Note
AROMA without water
Salty and sweet with an underlying smokiness. Cured meat aromas with cooking apples and dried figs.
TASTE without water
Smoky and sweet initially on the palate, with melon and apricot flavours and a milk chocolate edge.
AROMA with water
Sweet with hints of strawberry and mango. Salty sea air aroma with bonfire embers.
TASTE with water
Green apples with a touch of aniseed. Dried walnuts and cigar ash flavours linger.
What I say:
Sampled as part of Gordon & MacPhail’s ‘The Wood Makes The Whisky’ Campaign. Thanks to Gordon & MacPhail for the official sample. This is an 8 year old heavily peated expression from the Bunnahabhain Distillery on Islay matured in refill sherry butts.
Colour:
Golden refractive charddonay (6/20), fine droplet tears leave fine legs
Nose:
Sweet and peaty, milk & honey, hospital smell, antiseptic/clean, slightly phenolic, fruity, citrus, smokey bacon crisps, lactic, charred wood, fresh cut grass, mossy, maple-smoked bacon and clove oil. Pretty powerful stuff!
Taste:
Smooth cereal barley malt, honey, golden syrup, milk & cream, vanilla, TCP-like/germolene, fudge, butterscotch, charred bbq meats, wood-smoke, peat, toffee, treacle, new/fresh/spirit phenolics, raw and young.
Finish:
Medium-long peaty phenolic, acrid smoke – almost rubbery (burning tyres), sweet peanut and chewy gum arabic
Overall:
Great nose, young and a touch vitriolic on the palate – this one needs time in the glass and some air or water to tame that youthfulness! After that it is intense Islay peat all the way. Great and powerful dram for its age – I kinda liked this one!
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Categories: Bunnahabhain, Islay
The Whiskyphiles 