Welcome back to another fine pairing of two single malts, where I get to taste them side-by-side, pick out the slight differences between them, take down these notes in real-time, pick a favourite, and hopefully learn something new in the process. That’s right, I will do all that in the next hour on this fine Monday morning, with some fantastic music playing in the background, of course! Today I walk over to my shelves and pick up the two bottles from Bunnahabhain, which I wanted to pair up for a while now. I’ve had both individually but never next to each other, so I am excited to see how they hold up. So let’s get to it, and let’s get that music going! Now Playing: 36 – Cold Ecstasy

First up in Bunnahabhain Toiteach a Dhà, which I have compared in the past next to this Big Peat by Douglas Laing. But let’s revisit the highlights before I jump in. Pronounced “toch-ach ah-ghaa” [don’t worry, there won’t be a quiz later], this bottle is actually a follow-up to the original released many years ago. “Toiteach” means “Smoky” in Scots Gaelic, and “a Dhà” means “two”. This distillery bottling won many awards from 2018 to 2020, and at £42, many would claim it to be a great value for the money. It doesn’t have an age statement, but it is uncoloured and non-chill filtered, bottled at a perfect 46.3% ABV. The liquid comes from a vatting of whisky ageing in ex-bourbon and ex-oloroso sherry casks, and it is the latter that is imparting a slightly golden colour. It’s got a lovely smoky nose [not overly medicinal], and hints of sherry are also all right there, contributing scents of sweet fruit cake, raisins, and sweet bbq sauce. Let’s go in for a taste! Ah, it’s smooth and sweet [much sweeter than I remember], with wonderful waves of smoke perfectly integrated into the overall malt, which is ripe with sultanas and maybe even cantaloupe. A beautiful delivery with a lingering finish. I keep drinking this single malt and there’s nothing to complain here about!

Let’s check out Cruach Mhòna, which is pronounced “cru-ach vhona” [why can’t these be English names? Haha! We know why!], and it means “peat stack” – basically something like a pile of drying peat bricks. This is a Limited Edition Release, and I got my 1L bottle from a duty-free shop at the airport [it’s a Travel Retail Exclusive]. It’s also a non-age statement, uncoloured, and non-chill filtered, but bottled at a slightly higher 50% ABV. It doesn’t say what type of casks the spirit was aged in, but the colour is lighter, and I suspect it comes mostly [if not all] from ex-bourbon casks. The nose is lighter than the Toiteach a Dhà and not as sweet. The smoke is a bit more medicinal, but the signature is the same. Let’s go in for a taste! It’s definitely sharper, with the smoke cutting right through, and now is slightly saltier, as if the wind blew bits of water from the bay. I like it very much already, but let me add a drop of water and then go back and forth between the two drams. Ah, the Cruach Mhòna softened, but the peat is still there; it’s more direct, unsoftened with the sweet. After a sip of Cruach Mhòna at a higher strength, returning to Toiteach a Dhà, I almost taste only the ex-sherried malt, with the smoke coming in at the very end as if it was actually all along there from my previous sip.

Name	Toiteach a Dhà	Cruach Mhòna
Bottler / Series	Distillery bottling / core range	Distillery bottling / travel retail exclusive
Stated Age	NAS	NAS
Cask type	ex-bourbon and ex-oloroso	Unknown (ex-bourbon?)
ABV / Cask Strength	46.3% / No	50.0% / No
Non-chill filtered/ Uncoloured	Yes / Yes 🌟	Yes / Yes 🌟
Price	£42	£85 for 1L
Did it win? / Did I like it?	Yes / Yes	No / Yes, I still liked it very much!
Would I buy it? / Recommend it?	Yes / Yes – a must-have on the shelves	Yes / Yes if you can find it, fantastic!

So there you have it, folks, another fantastic tasting. Here’s my summary as far as I can wrap my head around it. The Cruach Mhòna is woodsier, saltier, and sharper with a blast of peat; The Toiteach a Dhà is mellower, smoother, and sweeter, with a perfect balance of smoke – I know, I’ve used those words already in this write-up, but it’s worth repeating on subsequent sips. I love the Cruach Mhòna, and I want to see next how it stands up to Lagavulin. It is, however, a limited release and, as of this writing, appears to be sold out in most places, with some outlets raising the prices due to its low availability. So I can see it being sold for as much as £85 (still a 1L bottle though). With that said, you can get the Toiteach a Dhà from Amazon [in the UK]! So, with that said, I will proclaim the Toiteach a Dhà as the winner of this round but will hold on to Cruach Mhòna and sip it on special occasions.