Bunnahabhain 1993-2004 - 10 Year Old - Douglas McGibbon - Provenance - Single Cask 1126

Bunnahabhain was founded in 1881, the same year as the other traditionally unpeated Islay whisky, Bruichladdich. Bunnahabhain was owned by Highland Distillers for over a century; when Edrington took full control in 1999 the distillery was mothballed, and in 2003 Bunnahabhain was sold to Burn Stewart Distillers. Distell International bought Burn Stewart in 2013 after previous owners CL Financial went bust.

Highland Distillers bottled Bunnahabhain’s unpeated Islay malt whisky as a 12-year-old from the 1970s onwards. Burn Stewart added older expressions to the core range and now release many single casks and limited editions, some of which use peated Bunnahabhain, which has been produced since the late 1990s. In 2010 the bottling strength of Bunnahabhain’s whiskies was increased to 46.3% and colouring and chill filtration were discontinued; sales increased by 160% over the next ten years. Independent bottlings of both unpeated and peated Bunnahabhain are easy to find and generally high quality.

Founded in 1947 by Fred Douglas Laing Sr, Douglas McGibbon is a subsidiary of famous independent whisky bottlers Douglas Laing. The McGibbon's brand began as one of Laing’s proprietary blends and by the 1970s had found great success, particularly in the Far East, where McGibbon’s golf-themed ceramic decanters were so popular they won the company a Queen’s Award for Export Achievement in 1990.

Douglas Laing moved into independent bottling in 1998 and the McGibbon’s Provenance series was launched in 2000 as a budget range, releasing a great many excellent Port Ellen casks in the early Noughties. McGibbon’s Provenance was renamed Douglas Laing’s Provenance in 2015 but the McGibbon’s subsidiary survives today as the vehicle for the company’s Clan Denny range.