Bunnahabhain 18 Year Old
Give Bunnahabhain's coastal spirit eighteen years in sherry casks and it stops whispering. This is the distillery at its richest: an Islay malt that has spent nearly two decades quietly soaking up dark fruit and cocoa, yet still keeps the saline thread that runs through everything made in the bay at Bunnahabhain.
The distillery has always been Islay's outlier, drawing peat-free spring water and letting the sea, rather than smoke, do the work. The 18 Year Old is bottled at 46.3%, non-chill-filtered and free of added colour, and it leans hard on quality sherry wood without ever tipping into a one-note sherry bomb.
The nose is classic and generous: raisins, figs and grapes over chocolate and salted caramel, with a nutty edge and a honeyed sweetness underneath. The palate is creamy and full, all rich cocoa and dark fruit, threaded with barrel spice, a flicker of chilli and that unmistakable coastal salt. It coats the mouth and stays there. The finish is long and gently drying, figs and toffee fading into salt and spice.
Eighteen years is the age where Bunnahabhain really shows what unpeated Islay can do. Pour it after dinner, give it room, and let the sherry and the sea argue it out.
How to Serve
Neat in a Glencairn, and be patient with it. Water isn't necessary at this strength, though a drop or two will lift the fruit if you prefer.
Where to Drink It
The Connaught Bar, for an occasion that deserves one. Scarfes Bar at the Rosewood, all firelight and deep chairs. Milroy's of Soho, where the staff will happily talk you through the sherry-cask side of Islay.
Food Pairings
Wonderful with a wedge of Christmas cake or a few Medjool dates wrapped in aged cheese. I'd also pour it alongside a plate of walnuts and dark chocolate.
