Bunnahabhain Distillery (Soruce: commons.wikimedia.org, Attribution: Nick Smith)

1881: Bunnahabhain is founded as joint venture between William Robertson, owner of the Glasgow-based whisky blender and broker Robertson & Baxter, and the brothers William and James Greenless, owners of Islay Distillers Company Limited. Due to its remote location, the village of Bunnahabhain is founded to house the workers. Bunnahabhain {BONNA-ha-ven} is Gaelic for ‘mouth of the river’ and refers to the Margadale River.

1883: The distillery starts with the production.

1887: Highland Distillers Company Limited is created after the merger of Islay Distillers Company Ltd and William Grant & Company.

1930: Production is been halted and does not resume until 1937.

1963: Two more stills are installed.

1982: Bunnahabhain is closed.

1984: The distillery is reopened.

1999: Erdington acquires Higland Distillers. Bunnahabhain gets mothballed but is allowed to produce for a few weeks each year.

2003: Burn Stewart Distillers (C. L. World Brands) buys Bunnahabhain and Black Bottle for the sum of £ 10 million.

Nowadays Bunnahabhain is widely known for its rather Islay untypical unpeated single malts. However, that was not always the case. The distillery produced a heavily peated whisky until 1963 when production was altered in order to supply a lightly peated spirit for the Cutty Sark blend. Since the takeover in 2003, Bunnahabhain produces small quantities of peated whisky mainly for the owner’s Black Bottle blend.

Tasting Notes

• Bunnahabhain 12 Years Old

• Bunnahabhain 1991 (TWA ‘Circus’)
• Bunnahabhain 2004 ‘Single Cask Seasons – Spring 2016′ (SV)

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