Bunnahabhain 10 Years Old 2014 (North Star)

North Star Spirits was set up in Glasgow in 2016 by Iain Croucher, originally with a focus on grain whisky from closed and silent distilleries before broadening into single malts across the wider Scottish landscape. The Cask Series runs as a numbered sequence of small-outturn single-cask releases, and Cask Series 025 is one of the series' more recent batches. This 10 year old Bunnahabhain was distilled in June 2014 and bottled in February 2025 from a single refill hogshead, producing 315 bottles at 55.9% natural strength.

The cask is unpeated Bunnahabhain spirit, the distillery's house style. Refill hogsheads produce a quiet, distillate-led profile rather than the heavier wood signature of first-fill casks; the cask has held spirit at least once before, so the most active extractive compounds have already been drawn down. At ten years in a quiet refill, the spirit rather than the wood is the protagonist.

The expected profile sits in the savoury-cereal register that well-rested unpeated Bunnahabhain produces from refill American oak: white bread, light pistachio, soft yeasty notes, with sweeter elements emerging slowly as icing sugar, fresh apple and citrus develop. A medium-length finish carries soft ginger spice and a gentle oak grip. The distillery's underlying mineral and lightly maritime character runs through the whole. Natural colour, non-chill-filtered, single cask.