Bunnahabhain 9 2006 Signatory Vintage Cask Strength {La Maison du Whisky Pick}

Thanks to /u/Davyj0ne5 for this sample.

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

Living in Canada, when I read about famous whisky places, I get jealous. I turn green. Luckily not in that “Hulk” way, as my pants budget would ruin my whisky budget.

One of these legendary emporiums that I’ve yet to get to is La Maison du Whisky, located in Paris, Singapore, and Reunion. Why? Because each time I was going to go to Paris, I decided to go to Scotland instead, as it’s just as romantic.

My marriage is awesome, thanks for asking.

This leads me to Bunnahabhain 9 2006 Signatory Vintage Cask Strength {La Maison du Whisky Pick}. This young Bunnahabhain was picked out by the legendary, mysterious store. Yes, I understand it’s just a high end shop, and yes, I understand that even they, with their nigh living on Olympus status, are humans and make mistakes and I’m doing this all for jokes, don’t @ me.

At the end of the day this is a cask strength, young Bunnahabhain picked out by Signatory. It’s been in a first fill sherry cask. It’s not picked by gods or slugs, it’s picked by women and men who thought it would sell. Let’s see if we know what they taste like, shall we?

Price: No longer available

Region: Islay

Exclusively bottled for: La Maison du Whisky

Vintage: 26.06.2006

Bottled: 24.08.2015

Age: 9 years

Cask Type: First fill Sherry cask

Cask Number: 2125

Number of Bottles: 607

Abv: 61.8%

Colour: 7.5YR 7/12

Nose: Rich Xmas cake, honey, raisin, lime pudding, Fresh toast, grapefruit

Big flavour. Large notes. Tons of spices. Just keeps hitting you.

Don’t add water though. Second I did that it ended up with an interesting French toast and then a shit ton of grapefruit that hits you in the face like… well a thrown grapefruit, really. They hurt.

Taste: Caramel, lime pudding, cinnamon raisin bread, noodles, oak, butter

Sweet, lovely richness, and even some spice going on. Eventually it has a cereal note that’s well developed. I’m going to say noodles and then be ranted about it in the real world later.

Water, again, doesn’t help this. It becomes simpler. Really simple with water. Loses some of the spice too, goes to oak and butter. Which if you’re a fat beaver, that’s up your alley. I’m not a beaver though.

Finish: Cereal, Moscow Mule, light molasses, graham cracker

Amazing finish. It pares back a bit on the cereal note and then amps up the lime to a more adult level. Some alcohol, but that works here. Lovely light sweetness and some buttery notes.

While not as big as the taste, still does each flavour quite nicely. That said: Water = bad for this dram, and this dram alone.

Conclusion: Doesn’t take water well at all, is what I’m trying to say. If this was the Shape of Water, this whisky is not the woman falling in love with the fishman. I don’t know, I didn’t see it, is there a whisky in that film?

Yeah, it’s a great dram, right from start to finish. Tasty, complex, punches above it’s weight. That said, the lack of taking water well does dock you points (get it, DOCK! WATER!)

Overall a great pick, a great whisky, and one that makes me want to visit Paris, so congrats for that. Now to figure out how to get there.

86/100

Scotch review #873, Islay review #216, Whisky Network review #1394