I’m back for another side-by-side tasting of two single malts. Finally! For the last week, for one reason or another, I’ve been drinking some pretty low-grade blended whiskies (Scotch and Japanese), but I do not regret the experience. It highlights the difference between widely available consumer-shelf blends as peddled by Diageo and Co. and some unique bottlings sought out by whisky enthusiasts [as I believe myself to be], such as the two drams I have up for a tasting today. And these are from the same distillery! This is where I really get to pick apart the tiny differences between them, take down these notes in real time, pick out a favourite, and hopefully learn something new in the process. I’m ready to go for it, but first, we need music! Now playing: Jon Hopkins – Music For Psychedelic Therapy.

The first dram from Bunnahabhain distillery, located on the north coast of Islay near Port Askaig, is courtesy of Cask Explorers‘ 2022 Advent Calendar (Ruby Edition) hiding behind door number 11, and it’s a special release for the Fèis Ìle festival which took place in 2022, named Abhainn Araig, which means Araig River in Gaelic. This is an uncoloured and non-chill filtered single malt bottled at 50.8% ABV, which spent an unknown amount of time (so it’s a NAS) in a combination of ex-bourbon and Pedro Ximénez (PX) octave sherry casks. I’ve had this whisky before at a bar and went out and grabbed an entire bottle (which is still unopened), so I’m pretty sure I will like it. But I’m excited to pair it against a 2022 Edition of Bunnahabhain‘s 12-year-old single malt, which is of cask strength of 56.6% ABV (there is also a “regular” 12-year-old, bottled at 46.3% – so don’t confuse the two). I’ve also tasted this single malt before and really enjoyed its sherried profile. And yes, although Bunnahabhain is an Islay distillery, most of its expressions, including these two, are from unpeated barley. For a heavily peated Bunnahabhain, you should seek out Staoisha [one of my all-time favourites]. There are also peated expressions called Toiteach a Dhà and a Traveler’s Exclusive Cruach Mhòna, which I have already compared side by side. This 12-year-old is also un-coloured and non-chill filtered, so both of these single malts get my integrity star, albeit with the age statement and a cask strength bottling, the 12-year-old goes up a few more notches. But let’s begin the tasting!

Since both single malts are of natural colour, I can judge and say that the 12-year-old is darker, with an almost reddish copper glow of a tint. It looks like it will be a little sweeter, but that could be misleading, depending on what type of sherry the casks were from. Oloroso can be dark and smell sweet but taste dry and tangy. There’s more bourbon on the nose in the Abhainn Araig, with some ripe peaches, pears, and cherries. The 12-year-old has some funk in it (I just popped the cork on the bottle, so maybe it needs to breathe a little), some Christmas cake and dates, and then red cherries once again. I truly have no idea which one will be sweeter, but let’s go in for a taste! The Abhainn Araig is very flavourful! There is some wood and, yes, plenty of ex-bourbon notes, with just a very slight veil of PX around. It’s not as sweet as I expected, and the PX almost rounds it off on the edges, blending nicely with the tiny bitterness of oak. The 12-year-old is fuller, rounder, and thicker, with some of that musk I’ve sensed before, which borders sulfur, but then there is the sweetness of the malt, approaching a sherry bomb at a pretty high ABV, with an incredibly long finish. I’ll need to add some water to these both (a tad more to the 12-year-old) – they definitely need it. Let’s go for round two. The Abhainn Araig has an extremely pleasant nose now. It softened quite a bit, but yes, I still taste a bit of oak mixed with the sweetness of PX. I think it works, but I am undecided. The sulfur has receded now a little in the 12-year-old. It’s still a little sharp, and I could see it taking on more water. The sweetness now is very present, moving from chocolate to burnt caramel and then to some tobacco. It might as well be an after-dinner digestive now if only it was slightly thicker with the oils.

Name	Abhainn Araig	
Distillery / Region	Bunnahabhain / Islay	Bunnahabhain / Islay
Producer	Distell International Ltd	Distell International Ltd
Bottler / Series	Distillery bottling / Feis Ile Festival	Distillery bottling / cask strength
Stated Age / Vintage	NAS	12 years old / 2010 then?
Cask type	Ex-bourbon & PX octaves	Ex-sherry
ABV / Cask Strength	50.8% ABV / No	56.6% ABV / Yes!
Non-chill filtered/ Uncoloured	Yes / Yes 🌟	Yes / Yes 🌟
Price	£97	£74
Did it win? / Did I like it?	Yes / Yes, but a bit oakey	Yes / Yes, but a bit sulphury
Would I buy it? / Recommend it?	Yes / Yes – a unique Bunna	Yes / Yes – cask strength for the win!

I’ll drop a little bit of water once again, cleanse my palate with San Pellegrino, take a walk around my balcony and breathe in some of that fresh London air while it’s still nice outside. In fact, I’ll take them on the balcony and drink them there, and then I will come back to finish off this side-by-side review. [5 minutes passes]. The 12-year-old now has a lovely Scottish mist in my Glen Cairn – proof that this whisky was not chill-filtered. I take a final sip, and it’s divine. Perhaps an echo of that sulfur I have noticed first, and I am only hoping that it will subside now that this bottle is opened [that happened in the past with newly uncorked malts]. The 12-year-old is a very sherried malt, and it’s completely different from the Abhainn Araig, which leans a lot more towards the bourbon territory. It’s also a fantastic dram, echoing that oakiness that I have noticed at first. I cannot shake it off. That definitely won’t go away with time, and I wonder if it was “masked” on purpose with Ximenez. It’s also possible that I am simply talking s**t, but this, as always, is my own opinion and perspective. You’ll have to make your own conclusions with these malts because I can’t decide. I love them both! And so, with that, I will proclaim a draw because I’d have them both on different occasions!

---

Update: I returned the following day to taste the 12-year-old again and am happy to report that the “funkiness” and that “echo of the sulfur” are entirely gone! I’ve seen [tasted?] this happen before with closed bottles which, after uncorking, need a few days to “breathe”. I’ve done more research on this topic and published an article here.