Bunnahabhain 1997-2012 - 14 Year Old - The Whisky Castle - Single Cask 5370

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.

An institution in the Highland village of Tomintoul, where it was founded in 1904, The Whisky Castle is a family-run independent retailer and whisky bottler with a long but infrequent history of releasing some exceptional single malt whiskies.

The Whisky Castle began bottling their own-label single malts and blended whiskies in the early 1990s, and their Castle Collection range has included excellent drams from distilleries including Lochside, Ben Nevis, Caol Ila, Glenallachie, Bowmore and Springbank. The Whisky Castle’s releases are bottled without colouring or chill filtration and recent bottlings have been at either 46% or cask strength.