Eirigh Na Greine — pronounced roughly 'ay-ree na grayn-ya' and translating as 'morning sky' in Gaelic — is one of the travel retail expressions developed during Burn Stewart's tenure, which continued under Distell and then the current ownership of CVH Spirits. It is an unpeated, no-age-statement Bunnahabhain given a period of finishing in red wine casks sourced from Italy, and bottled at the house 46.3% without chill filtration or added colour.
The wine influence is obvious but not aggressive. Where many wine-finished whiskies lean heavily on the cask and mask the underlying spirit, this keeps Bunnahabhain's coastal, slightly oily character visible beneath the fruit. It is a softer, more approachable expression than the core 12, and is pitched at the sort of airport browser who wants something distinctively Islay without the peat.
It has lived its whole life as a duty-free proposition, which is a pity in one sense — it is better than that suggests — and appropriate in another, since travel retail is where distilleries have often placed their more experimental cask work. For the price, and for drinkers who find unpeated Islay a useful counterweight to the smoke of Bunnahabhain's neighbours, it repays the time it asks.
