Bunnahabhain 12 Year Old

Excellent review, @KMullaney. The Bunna 12 is a very solid whisky, and a lot of bang for buck!

Also recently got a bottle after years of seeing and hearing about it but always passing it over ("if I want unpeated I'll go for Speyside" and so forth). It's very seldom that I purchase a bottle for a second time, even among my favourites, but this whisky is really making me consider it. The price helps with that too.

I just want to say that Bunnahabhain 12 is not for every body. When I tasted it I've got a big cabbage flavor that I totaly disliked. Maybe I should give another chance to Bunna but that was really a turn down for me. By the way, as I had it during a public tasting session, I was not the only one to get that flavor and to be disappointed by it. When you add to that that my whisky advisor told me that this flavor is part of Bunna signature, you can understand why I don't feel like trying it again.

Cabbage? Wow! I did not pick that up nor have I heard that tasting note in relation to Bunnahabhain or an cabbage. Seeing as though I live in Taiwan I am VERY familiar with cabbage, uncooked, boiled, stir fired, and about any other method of preparation. Had other people not claimed that it was a 'typical' tasting note for the beverage I might have chalked it up to the bottle. MAYBE it is the herbal note that many people pick up.

If you can find a miniature you might try it again.

@KMullaney Living in Taiwan, I have no doubt that you are very familiar with cabbage. Cabbage was not my call but was close enough to what I was tasting. I, myself, would have say that I had the nose of water in which you had boiled some vegetables ( maybe brocoli). The fact is I like cabbage (as I like brocoli). What would be a good dumplings without cabbage in it?

The fact is also that I am sensitive to some herbal notes. Some I love, some I hate. I had a Springbank with a big herbal flavor that tasted like a mix of rotten grass and rotten seaweed. I have a light version of the same herbal notes without the rotten part in the Laddie Ten and it works well. Of course I find it also in Hazelburn and Longrow but not as rotten as in Springbank. Without this rotten flavor, I would love Springbank for is DISTINCTIVE taste, namely its grassy flavor.

Well, VIVE LA DIFFÉRENCE!

That's the fun in whisky tasting, everyone finds something different. I think even the connection of certain smells to memories and such can affect how much one likes or hates a whisky. This whisky reminds me a little of this terrible wine we'd always have at our Sabbath family dinners which was vile stuff (salty vinegary grossness), but connection to those memories makes this whisky special for me.

I tested a Glen Garioch a few days ago that was very vinegary. While the rest of it was very good that note stopped me from buy a bottle that Serge at WhiskyFun rates highly, for him. Vinegar and water here in Taiwan is a common drink and early on in life here I was unfortunately handed a glass without knowing what it was. I was told it was apple juice, I think. Needless to say disappointment ensued. When I tasted that Glen Garioch it came back to me.

Vive La Difference indeed. Ralfy loved the glen garioch founder's reserve I found it much too young. Serge liked the Glen Garioch 12 but for me the vinegar note was a put off buying a whole bottle at this early stage in my development. Looking back I realize my comment was fairly strongly worded. I didn't intend to deny the cabbage note. I am sorry I did. @Shane_IL is spot on.

@robert99 what would you say is your favorite 'affordable' whisky that you think other whisky lovers should try?

@Shane_IL You are the Marcel Proust of Connosr!

@KMullaney don't worry, I didn't find your comment strongly worded. It just reflect your surprise and I was just having fun with your comment about knowing about cabbage because my wife lived for two years in Bei jing before I met her and she told me about how much she was fed up with cabbage after two winters.

About your question, for me the Glendronach Revival is the real crowd pleaser. I discard all peated whisky, of which I am a big fan, because there is a good number of afficionado that will never enjoy a peated whisky. I didn't go for a light taste neither a cask strenght for the same reason. The Revival with the sweetness, the chocolate, the datte, plum and spices seems to have everything to accomodate a large number of whisky lovers. But that is only my opinion. For a bargain, I would go for Redbreast 12 yo or, if you are open to whiskey, to number of Bourbon.

Ahh! I bought a glendronach recently and opted for the 12yo not the revival and I LOVE IT! I cannot wait to buy the 15 (revival).

@ KMillaney quote:"favorite 'affordable' whisky that you think other whisky lovers should try?"

I'd throw the new (46%) Tomatin 18 into that hat, definitely. About 65-70$, lots of bang for your buck.

I know it's a bit of a marmite whisky, but the Glenlivet 15 is pretty cheap for what you get and easy to find.

By affordable I should clarify I find Bunnahabhain 12yo very very affordable. Lagavulin here is at the high end of affordable. @jules I have tried a single cask Tomatin that seems to only have been released in Asia. It had an impressive nose but not much in the mouth. I will have to give Tomatin another whack.