After trying and liking a bottle of the core 12 Year expression by Islay distiller Bunnahabhain, I was eager and curious to try their peated bottle, the no-age-statement Toiteach (and apparently pronounced "toe chack" and meaning Smoky - a good sign). I bought a bottle as a birthday present for a new friend, who very kindly shared a glass with me, and I immediately wrote down my impressions to register here.
I got my hands on another bottling from Kilchoman, one of my new favorite distilleries (and the youngest on Islay). This one is "100% Islay," which is made from barley grown at the distillery, along with water found on their land - therefore every stage of the process is tightly controlled, and completely original to Kilchoman.
This particular Fourth Edition is five years old, aged in first fill bourbon barrels and bottled at a nice stiff 50%. No artificial coloring and no chill filtering either.
Taste is a strange sense, and perhaps the most subjective.
Most people can agree on the scent of an apple, or perfume, or the ocean when they encounter it blindfolded. Most people can differentiate touch between soft and hard, knobby and smooth, etc., to a very surprisingly minute degree. Most people can detect almost infinitely small gradients of color, and generally agree what is pleasing to observe and what isn't (within reasonable limits).
Ah... my journey through Islay is complete. Bunnahabhain ("Boo-nah-HAH-van," meaning Foot of the River) was the last distillery on my list - from Ardbeg to Kilholmen, Bruichladdich to Lagavulin, Laphroaig to Bowmore, Caol Ila to Bunnahabhain. The distillery dates to at least 1881, and the area is apparently well known for shipwrecks (according to Wikipedia), which lends a nice sinister aspect. The bottle is curiously shaped and designed, and decidedly old-fashioned.
Dear Readers, I point a finger to this article in Fortune:
http://fortune.com/2014/11/04/the-best-whisky-in-the-world-isnt-scottish
which notes that the latest edition of Jim Murray's Scotch Bible (2015), a sherry cask Yamazaki single malt from Suntory tops the list, and nothing from Scotland even cracked the top five (!!).
Many whisky bloggers and drinkers have seen this coming for some time. Scotch distillers have been moving away from transparent age-dated offerings, instead deciding to release opaque batches with clever names but without age statements.
