Bunnahabhain 2001-2021 - 19 Year Old - Coopers Choice - Single Cask 1426

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.

Cooper’s Choice is a long-running range of independently-bottled single malt whiskies from The Vintage Malt Whisky Company. Vintage Malt was set up in 1992 by Brian Crook, a former director at Morrison Bowmore, and the first Cooper’s Choice bottlings were introduced the following year, bottled at 43% initially with the first cask strength releases appearing in 1994. 

Early Cooper’s Choice bottlings of note included 1970s vintage casks from Ardbeg, Port Ellen and Scapa, and a large number of top class drams appeared under the label throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Cooper's Choice’s standard bottling strength was increased to 46% around 2012 but many releases are at cask strength. Alongside Cooper’s Choice, Vintage Malts also have their own proprietary Islay whisky brands including Finlaggan, The Ileach and Islay Storm.