Tastes

This is a lovely blend. It’s difficult to pin down the flavour as it keeps drifting to different places, but it’s a delightful mongrel. To attempt to describe it is tricky, but here goes: first hit is a fairly sweet, grain taste. It then moves to a rich fruity, spiciness that lingers for ages. The finish is a sweet sherry with cloves and salt. See, all over the place! Nice, ‘though!

(Bunnahabhain)

(Laphroaig)

(Bunnahabhain)

(Batch 10) This is a thick, oily dram. It tastes almost syrupy with bitter citrus and chocolate caramel. It ends on a buttery ginger note that lasts for ages. Typical of Ben Nevis’ older whiskies, it’s layered and complex. This one is growing on me the more I have. All-in-all, pretty good.

Sweet sherry and a lot of dried fruit up front, then moves into a chocolate ginger and caramel taste. The aftertaste is dry and floral. Overall, this is a very lovely dram.

As a blend of grain and malt, it tastes heavy on the grain. Rougher than you’d expect from a 21 year old. The initial taste is grapefruit and floral, with a hint of smoke and petrol. A long finish. Not one for me!

Smooth and quite well balanced. It’s sweeter than I’d prefer, but the sweetness is more orange fruit than saccharine. Hints of toffee and a bit of smoke, and a medium long oily finish. It’s a very good blend and a dram I’d happily drink again!

Salted caramel to start off with. It has quite a strong sherry note, with some fruit, but most of all it tastes young. The saltiness stays with you for a while. I’m a big Bunnahabhain fan, and have liked many of their NAS bottlings, but this is one of the poorer expressions in the range. It’s still an OK dram, but it’s not one of their best.

Rich sherry flavour, with a dry fruity back taste. There’s a lot of alcohol up front, but not as much as you’d expect for something at 60%. It tastes quite young overall, but despite the alcohol it’s a smooth and easy to drink dram. Spicy, peppery and sherried upfront with a long citrus and peppery finish. For my taste, a few drops of water opens this one out and gives it room to breathe.