Bunnahabhain Mòine Oloroso

Thanks to /u/Davyj0ne5 for this sample.

Welcome to my ongoing series, “Bunna-have you any more sir?”, in which I go through my backlog of way, WAY too many Bunnahabhains and review them.

So what do we know so far: Bunnahabhain is, according to a bunch of whisky nerds, is never amazing, yet always consistently good.

Speaking of consistency, the next whisky is Bunnahabhain Mòine Oloroso. And what makes the Mòine line consistent? I don’t really know! I think it’s experimental. Which is great when I’m trying to see if they are, as I said, consistent.

I don’t know people, maybe after 1400 whisky reviews, I’ve lost any semblance of thought. Let’s look into this. I may be way off.

The Mòine line is, according to Master of Malt, a showcase of Bunnahabhain with a healthy amount of peat. So that’s what ties them together. Which makes sense, as turns out Mòine is Gaelic for peat.

So from what I can see is they take this peated core malt, and try different casks. Some of it has an age statement, some doesn’t. Some is cask strength, some isn’t. And some is single cask, and some isn’t. I think.

Which brings us to Bunnahabhain Mòine Oloroso. NAS, not single cask, however it is cask strength, no colour added, and non-chill filtered. So we have that fun mixture of peat and sherry. And it’s not just a sherry finish either, it’s full maturation that I enjoy.

So let’ see how this tastes, shall we?

Price: No longer available

Region: Islay

Cask Type: Seven Oloroso Sherry casks

Abv: 60.1%

Colour: 5YR 2/6

Nose: Grilled steak, savoury cherry sauce, peat, brine, molasses

Interesting mixture of some sweetness, however it’s meatier and the peat pushes through the sherry, which ends up balancing it all.

Big flavours here. Blind it’s almost like a smokey rum that’s been in a sherry cask. So, you know, not like a rum at all. Let’s move on.

Taste: Brown sugar, orange rind, Thai basil, lemon zest

Less meaty on the taste. Closer to the Bunnahabhain flavour with good citrus, nice brown sugar, and a little bit too much acid.

Also some herbal elements that are just sweet enough. It’s not too complex on the taste.

Finish: Dry pear, mint, smoke, candied lemon, brine, cotton, toffee

And then the finish says “Want more complexity?” like some sort of crazy, non person Heath Ledger.

Earthy, dry, stone fruit, more herbal, spicy, caramel… what more could you want? Cinnamon, yeah, I’d like that too, but seriously, it’s a crazy finish.

Conclusion: Wow. Quite a whisky here. There’s quite a bit to parse out here.

If you like young Bunnahabhains, or young Islays in general, this may be for you. It has a surprising nose, a simple taste, and a crazy finish. The taste is the weakest area of the whole thing, with less flavours, the acidic issue that sometimes crops up, and lacking some of the promise of the nose.

The finish may not be for everyone, and certainly water opens it up more and more. So it’s a bit of an amalgamation of different drams. That’s why it doesn’t score as high for me. However it certainly makes me want to try more of these offerings.

84/100

Scotch review #871, Islay review #214, Whisky Network review #1392