Fèis Ìle 2022: Abhainn Araig

The Name

Abhainn Araig or ‘Araig River’ in English, is a river located on our beautiful isle of Islay. This feeds in to the Margadale River, the pure spring water source for all of our Bunnahabhain whisky. The Araig water is vital to the production process at the distillery, feeding cooling water for the condensers. 

The Whisky

Abhainn Araig is a marriage of Bunnahabhain spirit that has been matured in ex-Bourbon casks and ex-Pedro Ximenez sherry, octave casks, made from the finest specially seasoned European oak. 

These highly concentrated Octave casks were hand-selected to push the boundaries of sherry maturation. Not all whiskies stand up to full maturation in sherry casks, let alone specially seasoned octaves. Bunnahabhain, however, really stands up to this challenge.

This special, limited festival whisky is quintessentially 'Bunnahabhain' - unpeated, sherried, bold and complex.  Bottled with natural colour, non-chillfiltered and with an abv of 50.8%.

An Interesting Fact

This was actually the first whisky that our Master Distiller, Brendan McCarron, tasted when he joined Bunnahabhain in 2021 on his first visit to the distillery following his appointment!

Nose
Chocolate, powdered ginger  and cigar box.

Taste
A velvety rich texture , initially creamy milk chocolate then sweet raisins and dried raspberries.
As the PX develops balsamic vinegar and honeyed macadamias come through.

Finish
Deep and rich, with dark toffee and a final spicy burst of cinnamon.