Bunnahabhain 34 Years Old The Whisky Agency The Perfect Dram 59.3% 1974

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Serge Valentin (91)

Bunnahabhain 34 yo 1974/2008 (59.3%, The Perfect Dram, oloroso, 300 bottles) amazing colour – and amazing strength! Colour: mahogany. Nose: full-blown oloroso but not of the clumsy/lumpy kind. Chocolate sauce (mole), Corinthian raisins, prunes and dried oranges (loads). Also hints of old Armagnac. Amazing how this one is easy to nose at such high strength, but let’s not go too far and reduce it right now. With water: whooo, now it smells just like an old wine cellar somewhere down there in Jerez. Balsamic vinegar, horse sweat, mushrooms, saltpetre, old… err, sherry! Either you like this, or you don’t. I do but maybe a wine background is really needed here. Mouth (neat): starts very, very flinty, getting aggressive because of the very high strength. Water needed! With water: a very pleasant prickliness (lemon, not too ripe kiwis), quite unexpected, then these leathery notes, walnuts again, ‘acidic’ coffee (un-sugared of course)… Once again, a bit ‘like it or not’ but it’s quite spectacular. Finish: rather long, even more leathery, getting finally completely dry – but never drying. Bitter chocolate. Comments: an old sherry monster that wasn’t made in the lab, if you see what I mean.

BOW (91.25)