In a small village alongside the northeastern coast of Islay sits Bunnahabhain Distillery, whose repute precedes that of its birthplace. On a fair-weather day, nothing a lot appears to occur on this hamlet, aside from the light lapping of water in opposition to the darkish pebbles of the shore.
Bunnahabhain is one in every of solely two Islay distilleries (moreover Bruichladdich) that sing an reverse tune to the legacy of heavy peatiness that Islay malts are internationally well-known – or infamous – for. Most bottles of single malts from Bunnahabhain are nearly fully unpeated.
The distillery’s sources of water are from the close by Margadale Spring and the Loch Staoisha, a couple of minutes’ drive from the distillery. The distillery additionally has among the tallest pot stills in Islay, with wide-angled lyne arms that lead to a reasonably steep path of ascent for vapours. This can be the explanation why the distillery is claimed to provide a reasonably approachable spirit with a light-weight texture and candy citrusy notes in its profile.
The Victorian distillery historically aged its malt in ex-Sherry casks which provides a wealthy, purple fruit sweetness to the spirit, with typically a touch of ginger and a gentle salty edge.
Staoisha-labelled whiskies…
…are literally Bunnahabhains in skinny disguise.
Bunnahabhain has been experimenting with various ranges of peat. Funnily sufficient, it appeared that the distillery’s administration was a bit absent-minded in managing manufacturing. Apparently, this brought about them to finish up with an excessive amount of closely peated whisky that the administration felt was misaligned with Bunnahabhain’s model deal with unpeated or very-mildly-peated whisky.
In consequence, a lot of the closely peated distillate was offered off to impartial bottlers. And reasonably than labelling the distillate “Bunnahabhain,” the distillery prefers to make use of codenames like “Staoisha” (pronounced stow-ee-sha) for its peated whisky. So, “Staoishas” are solely supplied by impartial bottlers, not as unique bottlings from Bunnahabhain itself.
Staoisha bottlings are typically on the youthful facet at round 4 to 5 years outdated, and are normally casked in bourbon barrels. Whereas pretty younger, a current sequence of Staoisha bottlings said to have been matured in dechar/rechar refill hogshead casks have been making the rounds, and obtained fairly good critiques from the peat lovers I do know.
I’ve with me as we speak one other Staoisha in a putting blue label bottled by Singaporean rum and whisky impartial bottler Malt, Grain & Cane (learn John Go’s interview with these people right here). This was distilled in 2013 and bottled only in the near past in April 2022, and had spent eight years in an ex-bourbon barrel, then bottled at cask energy at 56.9% ABV. At eight years, that is really a barely extra mature Staoisha available in the market.
A bit segue again to the distillery’s story: simply final yr, the distillery changed its grasp distiller with Brendan McCarron, who has amassed years of expertise managing Lagavulin, Caol Ila after which Ardbeg, the place he spent a lot of his time working with the revered Dr Invoice Lumsden of The Glenmorangie Firm.
Brendan McCarron’s appointment additionally marks a shift within the distillery’s focus from simply producing spirit to higher cask administration practices. So, I strongly suspect that after they work out extra issues to do with their spirit, Bunnahabhain might properly start tightening its provide of Staoisha to outsider impartial bottlers. We might properly see a dwindling provide of Staoisha within the subsequent years. The purpose is that these Staoishas in all probability aren’t right here to remain without end!
So, let’s get to tasting this bottle.
Malt, Grain & Cane Staoisha “Ophelia” 2013 – Evaluate
8 Years Outdated. 56.9% ABV. Retails on Malt, Cane & Grain’s web site for about US$189
Color: Sunflower oil.
On the nostril: Opens with light salinity and smokiness – mildly harking back to smoked salmon. Smokiness intensifies to a dryer ashiness, whereas accompanied by a traditional Islay chalkiness and salinity of sea spray.
Backstage of smoke and brine is a crisp, candy, fruity core. The honeyed crisp sweetness is accompanied by a mildly herbaceous smokiness that jogs my memory of canned chrysanthemum tea. The dram grows in fruity notes, we get stewed apples accompanied by the tartness of apple cider vinegar, recent raspberries and pinot noir.
Within the mouth: Vivid, full of life, crisp, and creamy. The primary sip brings out a good sweetness accompanied by an unexpectedly clean layer of ashy smoke. There’s a contact of salinity harking back to skinny sliced prosciutto which, accompanied by the sootiness, provides an impression of charred meats.
A second or two brings out gentle natural notes harking back to Chinese language natural dessert soups; now we have cooked Longan, dates, wolfberries, and a light-weight syrupy be aware. And because the natural notes fade, brightness and acidity come via to current fruitier notes of honey lemon laborious candies and cherries. As soon as once more, the vibrance feels to be in tune with freshly uncorked purple wine.
As richer notes fade, a dry chalky minerality begin to present. Mildly flinty with an aroma of moist gravel. The end is medium size with fading notes of apple sweetness and a rising brininess of smoked salmon and coastal minerality, rounded out by a dry chalkiness.
Conclusions
This Staoisha has the finesse of a correctly aged Islay malt and a full of life bounciness seen within the younger Nikka Taketsuru (I really choose the NAS Taketsuru over aged ones) and a few old-style Clynelish expressions. It’s additionally extremely drinkable.
If steadiness is what you get pleasure from – versus straight up Islay peat bombs like different “closely peated” expressions – this precocious 8 yr outdated reveals a pleasant balanced trinity of (a) crisp, full of life recent orchard fruits, (b) mineral brininess and (c) a mild layer of Islay smoke that provides some cushion from the “chunk” of a cask energy ex-bourbon malt. Curiously, the cask affect doesn’t verge on woodiness; I can’t discover a trace of vanilla or oak on this.
Blind tasting this, I might have guessed this was no less than a 12 to 14 yr outdated Scotch, which leads me to marvel if this batch is equally topic to the magic of these dechar rechar casks that have an impact of growing older these whiskies barely quicker as virgin oak casks do.
Primarily, this course of entails “decharring” a used cask scraping off the internal charred partitions to disclose recent, energetic oak beneath, then “recharring” the cask with one other spherical of fireside. This prompts the cask with out exposing the whisky to an excessive amount of harsh tannins present in virgin oak. It’s much like the Shave/Toast/Rechar (STR) course of pioneered by the late whisky professional Dr Jim Swan.
