The oldest Bunnahabhain in this series, a 35 year-old, matured in refill sherry wood.
Bunnahabhain 35y 1973 (50,1%, The Whisky Agency 2008, Shark series, 509 btl.)
Nose: oh boy. While there are certainly nice aspects to this dram, like the sherry sweetness and notes of raisins and honey, I’m afraid I can’t get over the dirty notes. It smells like cooked cabbage, wet forest and mushrooms. Now I love mushrooms, but this is rather unpleasant. The thing is, once you notice it, it’s really hard to appreciate other flavours, because it doesn’t even disappear after 30 minutes in the glass.
Mouth: better, starting sweet with floral notes and honey. But still a background of mushrooms. Growing more bitter towards the end.
Finish: notes of tonic, like in the Bunnahabhain 1976, and some rubber as well.
I think this was good spirit matured in a less than perfect sherry butt. Second and third fill sherry casks are more prone to sulphur treatment, could that be the reason? Not my kinda dram anyway. Around € 175.
Score: 75/100
ps/ Serge at Whiskyfun seems to like it, even with the dirty notes.