Bunnahabhain Fèis Ìle Duo
2023 & 2024 Fèis Ìle Releases | 51.2 & 58.7% ABV
Shifting Priorities
Changing tides and shifting priorities. Much like our changing markets, including supposed scaling back of production, things must evolve and respond to the times. Whisky makers and distillers have been trying to predict where the market and spending trends will go, some with a sixth sense while others have gambled horribly.
I’ve been spending heavily on whisky the past two years, amassing a collection that I’m quite proud of and has been the source of significant enjoyment. But with all things, the tides change. They subtly reorganise the coastal topography, changing the nooks and crannies for which we hide our silty treasures.
For me, it’s a change of the tidal forces of spending. My wife and I have been eyeing up several things. Firstly, the house. Yes, we are fortunate enough to have bought before all the real estate craziness that has gripped many locales around the world. Our local province has seen over 10% annual population growth in the past 2-2.5 years, something that is stretching the housing market to the absolute limit. If there was some flexibility and vacancies before, they’re surely gone now. We’ve got two kids, a 6 year old son who loves all things sports, and a 3 year old girl that’s just starting to show her full colours, plus two dogs.
Looking ahead, as much as the misty crystal ball of fortune tellers will allow us, we will probably outgrow the kids' rooms. With desks for homework, growing bodies, and both of them preferring to do anything but sit and colour. And, in a somewhat cool but also somewhat embarrassing or impractical perspective, we don’t have a home office. While not critical for some, it is critical for me.
I’ve been working exclusively from home for the past five years and will likely continue to do so for several more years. Given the design of our house, and dedication of a significant area in the basement to a kids playroom since weekends can be tough and long when it's -25ºC or colder in the winter, my “office” is the home bar. Yup, my video background is racks of wine, some slumbering mini casks, and shelves stuffed with whisky.
While it sounds cool, it also has drawbacks. Ergonomics are not great, countertop space is limited, lighting leaves something to be desired, and I can’t isolate myself from the household antics. I am often on calls or meetings when the kids get home or have late night/early morning meetings due to time zone challenges and having the kids and family tip-toe around because daddy’s on a call is not the easiest. So we’ve decided on pinching the pennies for an upgrade. Bigger rooms for the kids, an office for dad, a bigger kitchen dad, and a triple car garage for dad for all his construction and hobbies. Now that I write this down, it sounds like I’ll be coming out on top here. Nae bad!
Couple that with the fact that I’ve got roughly 140 full bottle equivalents worth of whisky around, I’ve got quite the backlog. I polled our Dramface team for their weekly consumption of 30ml (1 oz) drinks. The spread obviously varies significantly depending on the person and their involvement with whisky but the average across 22 respondents was between 6 and 12 drinks. If we assume the average of 8 drinks/week, which conveniently was also my average weekly intake, my remaining 140 bottles equates to 402 weeks or 7.7 years.
Obviously my stash can last me quite some time. However I will have to come to terms with what happens when I run out of bottles to review for Dramface. While I’m not worried about chasing the newest releases with a shotgun wallet to chase site views, because that’s not what Dramface is about anyways, it is something to consider but that’s a future Broddy problem.
Let’s dive into these Bunnahabhain Fèis Ìle releases that were purchased before the realignment of finances to see if they may have been a good use of diminished funds.
Review 1/2
Bunnahabhain Canasta Cask, 2023 Fèis Ìle Release, Unpeated, 51.2% ABV
CAD$170 (£95) paid, occasional availability
Nose
Smells exactly like the Oloroso and PX sherries we sampled in the Sherrygeddon evening. It’s so perfectly uncanny. Copy paste a 70% Oloroso and a 30% PX sherry blend and that’s exactly what this smells like. There’s virtually no alcoholic prickle either.
Candied walnuts, Christmas cake, rummy mincemeat squares, and raisins. This smells like winter comfort whisky.
Palate
Walnut bitterness. Burnt toffee. Good amount of cinnamon nibbles on the tongue. Orange peel, including some pith, hiding underneath. Not nearly as sweet as the nose, or the label for that matter, had led me to anticipate although it does get sweeter after the fourth and fifth sip.
The finish is short and objectively generic, with a declining cinnamon and dry Oloroso sherry experience.
The Dregs
I’m not sure if you’ll believe this, but as is the norm for me - and many of us at Dramface for that matter - we do our research after we’ve written our notes and thoughts down. Apparently the Canasta sherry that previously inhabited these casks is a cream sherry, a style characterised as a blend between dry Oloroso and sweet PX sherries. The particular cream sherry here comes from Williams & Humbert, with a reported blend of 75% Oloroso and 25% PX in the mix. I got quite close with my guesstimated 70%/30% split! The full maturation, as stated on the back label, definitely had an impact here with the directly linked Oloroso and PX sherry influences.
I had to pull out the Dramface scoring guide and my own scoring habits for this one. Is it a 5 or 6? Given the price these Fèis releases command, the disconnect between the nose and the palate notes and experience, and the promising sparkles of what this could have been, this sits at a 5.
Length of finish and mouthfeel are also important factors for me and sadly, this fully matured in sherry Bunna just didn’t measure up. Sorry Bunnahabhain, you should have transferred this whisky into some ex-bourbon or refill casks for another 3-4 years. I bet this would have turned into a banger.
Score: 5/10
Review 2/2
Bunnahabhain 14yo Ruby Port, 2024 Fèis Ìle Release, Unpeated, Ruby Port Finish, 58.7% ABV
CAD$135 (£75) paid, occasional availability
Having spent 11 years in bourbon casks, the unpeated spirit was dumped into ruby port hogsheads for another 3 or so years before bottling for the 2024 Fèis Ìle festival. If you notice the price I paid, I bought this on discount.
Nose
Tight and not overly expressive, I was expecting something more dense given the casks and age. Some alcohol prickles can be found when you stick your schnoz in too close. It does noticeably open up more after 30-45 minutes in the glass. Time rewards this one well.
Cinnamon. Danish pastry with a mystery red jam/jelly dolloped in the centre. Distinct gummy cola candies. Simple syrup sugary sweetness. Cherry glaze atop a black forest cake.
With water, it does become creamier and vanilla pops up. Presumably the water is liberating some of the previous 11 years of ex-bourbon notes from underneath the smothering ruby port casks.
Palate
Big and dense. Unabashed port influence. Mounds of spice and drying oakiness. Hard berry candies. 60-70% dark chocolate. Chocolate filled croissant. I can’t escape the cherry & chocolate notes from the nose either.
The finish is medium in length and is a combination of spice, hard candies, and chocolate.
With water, the spice is tamed down and the mouthfeel is much creamier, think along the lines of vanilla custard.
The Dregs
Again, doing my research after the fact, I usually casually glance at Whiskybase scores and I was taken aback. Several recent “reviews” of this whisky had “sherry, raisins”, “Powerful and a lot of sherry”, and “... decent modern sherry” written as comments. Clearly this whisky hasn’t had a lick of sherry touch it! It does speak to the credibility of various platforms out there, and I’m definitely not throwing any dirt towards Whiskybase, but I hope that we’ve been earning your trust in our 2.5 years of operation and 1000+ plus reviews.
Now for the score. Yes I do fancy a port-finished whisky when done well which unfortunately is not a common occurrence with these barrels. In a five-way Port Royale faceoff, how does this Fèis Ile release fair?
Well, honestly, it’s incredibly similar to the 6/10 Arran Port cask while being twice the price. I dug out my bottle of 7/10 Glenallachie 12 yo Ruby Port and it beats out this Bunna with a more balanced integration of flavours. Ditto with the 7/10 Tomatin 14 yo as well, with its heavier use of refill port casks evening things out further.
So there ya have it. This sits at a 6/10 score only if you don’t mind a heavy influence of port casks. The creaminess and ability to play with water saves this from being a 5/10, despite the price point. If you’re not a fan of port cask influence, this will likely score lower for you.
The Final Dregs
Am I glad I bought these? Well, yes and no. I’m happy that I was able to buy these and experience them for myself. These have been my first Fèis Ìle releases of any distillery and the 2023 was pure happenstance in a store, hence why I paid full price. Fast forward several months and with Bunnahabhain slowly starting to return to my market, I spied the 2024 on discount and immediately pulled the trigger, hence the lower price.
So where’s the unhappiness coming from? Well both didn’t live up to the promises of a “special Fèis Ìle” release and now with my more reduced and focussed purchasing guidelines, I’m quite sure I would not have bought them. That gets to the crux of the problem: if we as enthusiasts are cutting back on purchasing and only purchasing “guaranteed” whiskies that you’ll like, you will quickly get locked into a single path. While a singular laser focus can be applauded for it allows you to elucidate very subtle nuances, it can quickly put blinders on to new distilleries or experiences. With my reduced and narrowed focus, I wouldn’t have bought these for they wouldn’t have met the criteria I’m currently chasing.
But that will always beg the question: will I miss something special in the next couple years? Damn, FOMO sucks.
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. BB
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