Bunnahabhain 12 Year Old Cask Strength - 2022 Edition

Product Information

Driving around to different parts of the island also revealed its very different landscapes. The relatively flat (for Scotland) moorland between Bowmore and Port Ellen felt calm to the more blustery Bruichladdich on the far side of Loch Indaal. The slightly more wooded south coast had a more bucolic sense than the remote feel of the ancient historical seat of the Lords of the Isles at Finlaggan. The third edition of this annual small-batch release from the Islay distiller is said to pay homage to the roots of the original 12 Years Old. The unpeated spirit has been matured in a combination of first- and second-fill oloroso sherry casks and ex-bourbon casks. The Service has been prepared by us solely for information purposes to Members and the Service is based on information we consider reliable and we obtain the contents of the Service from a number of different third party sources (including Contributions), but we do not endorse, support, represent, warrant or guarantee the completeness, truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of the Services and any information therein. Wandering around Finlaggan’s historical ruins of a meeting house, chapel, and various other structures long since demolished prompted us to stop and consider the kinds of things that these sorts of places are very good at prompting. As the ruins sit symbolically on a tiny island within a loch on Islay, and as we touched the stone walls as they started to cast shadows across the water at sunset, with orange skies drifting into pink clouds as the sun slowly descended, we each reflected how short a time we’re all here for.

No partnership, joint venture, agency, or employment relationship is created as a result of your use of the Service. Anyway we digress, at the time of writing all we could determine regarding cask type was that sherry casks featured prominently. Worth noting for those that love sherry that from the taste and colour these were refill sherry casks. In time, the owners invested in a substantial pier which stands to this day, but I discovered that my intuition that building on Islay would’ve been difficult was proven for Bunnahabhain during its construction. Deep into the first building period in an Islay winter, two large boilers were blown off the beach while they were waiting to be fitted. Why build on such a remote part of a small island you ask? Well it seems the decision to build here was not least on account of Robertson & Baxter's close relationship with Bulloch Lade & Company, who were rebuilding Caol Ila at the time, and also because of the plentiful water from Loch Staoisha ( which could also be used to cool the condensers) and the previously mentioned access by sea. Bunnahabhain is a robust and complex spirit, unpeated and oily but with sweet notes of dried fruits and cereal, and it means that the spirit can really take on the big flavour profiles that come from the full maturation in the sherry casks.” The 2021 is good, but the 2022 is great.If you bought the 2021 edition and were disappointed, the 2022 is what you were hoping for.It’s what I was.It’s very close to the standard 12 dialled up.If you place drams of the 2021 and the 2022 next to the standard 46% 12 year old, right away you’ll group the 2022 and the standard 12 Glencairns together with the 2021 as the outlier.If you see this on offer, get it. For fun, pour it alongside something heavily peated, say the Port Charlotte 10 and/or a Ledaig 10. Just to gauge as to how different in phenolic level this whisky actually is, and how there’s still enough of the maritime element in there to make it scrumptious anyway. Lovely stuff. From what I can find this cask strength version has a slightly bigger percentage of sherry casks in its recipe, compared to the standard release. Without prejudice to the section Liability below, the Service may be temporarily unavailable during maintenance, updates, etc. We shall make reasonable efforts to inform you of any unavailability due to maintenance or updates.

For me, this is to be welcomed. Life is short, I get bored easily, and I don’t want to drink the same thing all the time. I want to see what my favourite distilleries can do with their spirit. Chop, change, twist, turn – I want to explore all the permutations and variations I can in the spirits I love. With this series, some folks were initially and understandably a bit disappointed with the 2021 (despite that being a good dram), feeling it wasn’t quite the punchier big brother of the standard 12 year old that was expected in a first release of the cask strength version. The 2022 met that expectation and both the 2022 and 2023 are fabulous drams - in their own ways - showcasing different sides of the spirit, and this should be celebrated, discussed, explored, and discovered for ourselves. In modern times, changes to the norms of whisky production in a particular Scotch whisky region are welcomed. Along with Bruichladdich, Bunnahabhain was one of the first to deviate from the typical Islay profile when alternative fuels were made available and the demand for lighter spirit, without the heavy smoke, increased. At one time, there were 23 active distilleries in operation on the island, so competition to sell liquid was rife. Nothing in the Terms shall exclude or limit our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or for death or personal injury resulting from gross negligence or willful misconduct by us.If any provision of these Terms is held invalid, the remainder of the Terms shall continue in full force and effect. Our Service is an online platform which provides Members with information (e.g. bottle facts, market-indices, market values and prices) on (mostly) whisky and allows Members to add information to the platform. We do not sell, nor does the Service provide any option to buy, any alcoholic products. This second release is of course similar in many ways to the first, as we follow the same classic recipe of unpeated Islay spirit in oloroso. The latest expression is richer in sweet chocolate and red fruits on the nose and carries a spicier finish delivering bigger, richer and fuller flavours of oloroso sherry that Bunnahabhain drinkers have come to know and love." I’m a big Bunnahabhain fan, if it wasn’t already painfully obvious (but not an uncritical one), so take my perspective here with that in mind. This is a damn good dram. It’s heavy, it’s sherried but by no means a sherry bomb, it’s complex, and its different dimensions are nicely balanced against each other to create a sensory equilibrium that allows accessible exploration of different facets of the house spirit. There’s plenty for me to explore here all evening in this one dram. For me, that’s pretty close to the definition of a satisfying dram, and it’s one of the better Bunnahabhains I’ve tried. You are responsible for all activities through your account. You are responsible for the accuracy of the information you provide to us in relation to your account, and for updating it where necessary. You are not allowed to create multiple accounts. We may terminate or temporarily suspend your account to protect you, ourselves or our partners from (suspected) identity theft or other (suspected) fraudulent (e.g. false, misleading, deceptive) activity. You have the obligation to keep your login credentials confidential. You shall not authorize any others to use or access your account.

If we decide not to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms, such decision shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. On the palate we’re getting blood orange juice, tobacco, orange peel, walnuts, and notes of sherry soaked raisins. Nose (with water) There are lots of spheres of life where this approach pays off: sharing the road with lunatic drivers, my mother-in-law’s cooking, or the perpetually scatter-brained friend who can never manage to make a night out even after suggesting it himself. Yet, these are expectations I have of others, not expectations I hold for myself. This distinction is key to how expectations in whisky continue to raise us up, befuddle us, and sometimes come crashing down on our earnestly eager heads.

But there’s batch variation for sure, and that’s what, many of you dear Dramface readers, may be more interested in. How does this compare to last year’s 2022 sherry belter, or 2021’s first release? Interested in trying drams like these? We've created the Two Whisky Bros Dram Club to help you get access to high quality, rare whisky by the dram. Another single review today, but it’s another biggie as we look at a huge release from Bunnahabhain. The 2022 12 Years Old Cask Strength release has been matured in first- and second-fill oloroso sherry casks – as was the first 12 Years Old Cask Strength release in 2021 – which the distillery says impart notes of "intense dried fruits and warm cinnamon spice". The new expression is bottled at 56.6% ABV.

Whiskybase B.V. (“Whiskybase”, “we” or “us”, company details below) offers a whisky enthusiasts online platform that provides its members access to the most comprehensive, transparent and trusted resource of whisky bottles and allows and stimulates its members to contribute information about whisky bottles to the platform (“Service”). Unless mandatory applicable law provides otherwise, your use of and membership to the Service are exclusively governed by Dutch law. We shall first try to settle any dispute over a dram of whisky. Disputes that cannot be settled over multiple drams of whisky shall be solely submitted to the court of Amsterdam, The Netherlands unless mandatory applicable law provides otherwise. Pro Tip: We highly recommend you don’t copy us and do the morning session as cask strength whisky at 10:30am is a fairly big challenge even for practiced drinkers. Whenever you go we suggest you ask for drivers drams as you will receive your drams to take away, but will also receive a far too generous snifter of the drams to try as you’re being taken through the tasting. Although, if you are actually driving please skip the snifters as they’re a sure fire way to end up in a ditch, or off the side of the cliff leading to the distillery.I find myself enjoying this 2023 release just as much as last year’s more sherried release, but – importantly – for different reasons. This is not a repeat of the 2022. I repeat: this is not the 2022, so if you are expecting that with this, you may be either surprised or disappointed, or both. That the distillery has decided to make the 12 year old cask strength release explicitly batch variable means that we now have three very distinct drams across three years that showcase different aspects of the spirit. The trouble is that the expectations we have in whisky are often more about us than about others. As Ogilvie discussed recently, each of our whisky journeys are woven through with expectations. We build up bottles in our eagerly anticipating brains to levels that defy anything approaching common sense. FOMO is one manifestation in whisky of failed expectation management. I see that the Next Best Bottle has just been released, and my mind, nose, and taste buds form a boisterous conga line coaxing me to join, merrily and unthinkingly guiding me to shell out some hard-earned money for it. This sometimes happens with a distillery I’ve yet to try, but more often it’s from a distillery I know and have enjoyed bottles from before. It’s the worst with distilleries that are in the handful of what I’d call my favourites. We may sell, license, transfer, assign or in any other way dispose of the Service (including Members) to any third party without any notification to you, e.g. (but without limitation) in connection with any reorganization, restructuring, merger or sale, or other transfer of assets.