Bunnahabhain 11 Year Old Discovery

In their Discovery range Gordon & Macphail offer approachable entry level malts and today I’ll put two of those to the test, both for the Islay distillery of Bunnahabhain. Both are quite young, but one matured on a bourbon cask, while the other slept on a sherry cask. I’ll finish with the 11 years old on sherry.

Sweet notes of dried and candied fruit dominate the nose. Think oranges, peach and mirabelles. Cake. Red lace candy. Some green garden herbs and soft peat in the background. Slowly but surely an umami note appears as if from chicken broth, but with a good drop of candied syrup in the mix. It works.

The body is rather light. Again the fruit shows itself first before the smoke develops, but that does not take long. Lots of spice that you would associate with an active sherry cask, like cloves, cinnamon and a lot of black pepper. It tries to show it’s little dirty side, but the sherry cask keeps it just a tad to sweet to do that.

The finish is medium long, candy-like sweet with a touch of walnuts at the death.

Interesting but very sweet Bunna. Around 50 EUR.

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