A 30 year old Bunnahabhain is the product of a distillery which, for most of its history, did not expect anyone to drink its whisky as a single malt at all. Founded in 1881 and built to supply blenders, Bunnahabhain quietly laid down stock for decades without much thought to its reputation as a standalone brand. It is that historical accident — the absence of pressure to bottle everything young — that has left the distillery with a small but remarkable library of very old casks.
The 30 year old has been a fixture of the upper range for years, bottled at the house 46.3% and drawn primarily from sherry-matured stock. It is non-chill-filtered and natural colour, as with the rest of the modern lineup. Three decades in oloroso wood takes the spirit a considerable distance from the brighter, saltier profile of the 12 year old, but the coastal marker is still audible — the sea, as it were, still speaks from under the fruitcake.
At this age sherry cask whisky walks a line between depth and exhaustion, and Bunnahabhain's oily, slightly waxy distillate carries the weight better than most. It is a contemplative whisky rather than a sociable one, and at its price it is firmly in the category of occasional drinking. But for those who want to understand what unpeated Islay can become when left alone for a very long time, this is the document to read.
