pkingmartin
Bunnahabhain 2004 Mòine Tokaji Cask Finish (Fèis Ìle 2022)
Single Malt — Islay, Scotland
Reviewed
June 30, 2022 (edited July 16, 2022)
I’m a huge fan of Bunnahabhain and was excited to find that you can get samples of Feis Ile bottles or distillery exclusives through their website and grabbed a sample of this Feis Ile.
The nose starts with dehydrated apricots, poached pears and vanilla salted taffy followed a campfire with burning leaves and light diesel fumes then baked plums, fig jam and candied lemon peel that transitions to candied ginger, cloves, leather and mildly bitter black tea with medium ethanol burn.
The taste is a medium mouthfeel starting with dehydrated apricots, poached pears and vanilla wedding cake followed by a moderate bitter spice that slowly fades to fallen leaves, charred hay bales and light tar then nectarines, fresh figs and gooseberries that transitions to candied ginger, cloves, leather and mildly bitter black tea with medium ethanol burn
The finish is medium length with golden raisins, dehydrated apricots, charred hay bales, ginger, cloves and mild campfire ash.
Overall, this is just shy of excellent that manages to take those leafy, earthy and smoky peat notes and combine them with the Tokaji sweetness to create this sweet and smoky balance that works incredibly well together but suffers from a slight youthful sourness along with moderate bitterness on the palate that throws off that balance of sweet and smoky toward a tannic spice.
At the cost of $200+, I don’t think this justifies its premium price outside of bragging rights to have a Feis Ile bottle and it seems like I’m not alone as these are still sitting for sale on their website. Still a very good whisky, but I’d like for them to take that Feis Ile off the bottle and drop that price to $120 for me to be ready to make the purchase.
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@PBMichiganWolverine Yep, seems to be the Feis Ile label inflating these as some of their other distillery exclusives seem priced $40+ less. They also released a 23 year finished in French Calvados for $400 and a 37 year finished in Oloroso for an eye popping $750. I wasn’t able to get samples of those but would be interested if they follow the same trend.
@pkingmartin another Bunna Feis Ile that seems good, but way over priced