Mòine — Scottish Gaelic for 'peat' — is Bunnahabhain's entry-level peated bottling and the younger sibling to the more contemplative Ceòbanach. It comes from the same week or two of heavily peated production the distillery began running each year in the early 2000s, when it decided to reintroduce a smoky style that had not been part of its everyday output for the better part of a century.
Bottled at 46.3% ABV without chill filtration or added colour, Mòine is matured principally in ex-bourbon American oak and carries no age statement, though most of the liquid is drawn from younger stocks than its older stablemate. That youth is part of the point: the smoke here is brighter, the spirit livelier, the whole thing a more forward-leaning expression of what Bunnahabhain peated production tastes like in its early years.
The nose is clean and coastal — sweet wood smoke, salted lemon, vanilla — and the palate has the oily, slightly briny texture that runs through everything Bunnahabhain bottles. There's a youthful pepperiness, a flicker of pear, and a peat note that arrives confidently but never overwhelms. It is, in the most literal sense, peat with the Bunnahabhain accent.
At around £50 it sits at a useful price point: a peated Islay single malt at non-chill-filtered strength, bottled without additives, from a distillery whose unpeated work has long been a connoisseur favourite. For drinkers who want to explore Islay smoke without leaping straight into the deep end of Lagavulin or Laphroaig, Mòine is one of the more honest and well-priced introductions on the shelf.
