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Friday, February 21, 2020

Bunnahabhain 10 year old 2005 Signatory, cask 579 for Binny's

I partnered yesterday's excellent easygoing excellent 10yo sherried Bunnahabhain with today's ??? 10yo sherried Bunnahabhain during my tastings this past weekend. This sample comes from an OC Scotch Club event right near by birthday 4½ years ago. This was the set:


I've since reviewed most of these. This Bunny and the Clynelish had just arrived at Binny's when we scooped them up. That may have been the worst Clynelish I've ever tried. Let's just say, my hopes are a little higher for the Bunnahabhain. Is hope dead?

Distillery: Bunnahabhain
Region: Islay
Independent Bottler: Signatory
Exclusive to: Binny's
Age: 10 years (9 March 2005 - 13 March 2015)
Maturation: 1st fill sherry butt
Cask number: 579
Outturn: 546 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 57.8%
Chillfiltered? No
Colorant added? No
(from an OCSC event)

NEAT
The nose starts with lumber, cinnamon, cloves and VOCs. Brine, rosewater and prunes escape 10+ minutes later. Dates and toffee pudding appear 30 minutes after the pour. The massively grapey palate is all PX-like sherry and wood, no spirit. Jammy sticky sweet. The finish is the same, but with a tannic edge.

DILUTED TO ~50%abv, or < 1 tsp of water per 30mL whisky
The nose remains oaky, but there's a lot more baking spice now. No prunes. Minor dunnage, floral and vanilla notes arise. The palate has lots of woody bitterness, tannins, soap. You know, all the good things. It does pick up some nuts, meats and florals after a while. It finishes bitter, nutty and salty.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
Well, crap. Though my notes make the whisky sound worse than it actually is, it actually is not good. Of course, the whiskybase community LOVES it. So, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

I mean, other than the fact that it's unbalanced and aggressively oaky with a one-note palate, goes soapy and bitter when diluted, and could be from any distillery or spirit genre, it's fine. 94 points!

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - ???
Rating - 73 (only when neat, and only stays above 70 because of the nose)