Bunnahabhain 12 Year Old
Good price/quality ratio
0 675
RReview by @RikS
- Nose~
- Taste~
- Finish~
- Balance~
- Overall75
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- Brand: Bunnahabhain
- Type: Scotch
- Region: Islay
- ABV: 46.3%
Got this one, so thought I'd put down a few comments on it.
The nose, first sniff reveals a smack of raisins, almost sugary. I haven't checked maturation, but the sherry feels very pronounced. On a later second nosing there's some ripe banana and maybe a little bit of figs. There's some salted toffee.
The Palate is quite hot on entry with a slight burn. There's some spice, and we're in 4th gear on vanilla notes. Again with the raisins. Fairly straight forward and certainly not one of the curiously (and more interesting) shape-shifters.
The finish is short to medium. There's some dry wood bitterness in there, I'm tempted to also say matches. If the palate is more pleasant than the nose, then the finish comes last on the list.
As far as sherried drams go, there are many that I'd rather drink than this. That said, at the price point (£30 in the UK on regular offers) it's not bad so it'd be silly compare it with other sherried alternatives in the £50-90 bracket. From a pure taste experience it's a 73 for me, considering the price/quality ratio I may push that to 79. (note, looking at other reviews here, I am conscious that I'm probably quite stingy with my marks having awarded 89 to a dram that I really like a lot so statistically I may be about 5 points trailing, which I suppose is relevant to help people get an average impression so you may wanna make that 78 for taste / 84 'all things considered').
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I too found the bottle I finished (last year?) had a pretty weighty sherry influence. This often seems to be a bit understated in others reviews so I wonder if there must be quite a bit of batch variation. I found lots of lingering spice too - a very enjoyable and underrated dram.