Bunnahabhain 13 Years Old 2010 Cask #9007301 (The Single Cask Ltd.)

The Single Cask is a London-based independent bottler operating from a bonded warehouse in Wapping, releasing single casks across a broad spread of Scottish distilleries. This 13 year old Bunnahabhain comes from cask 9007301, fully matured in a Moscatel wine cask and bottled in 2024 at 67.9% natural strength.

The 67.9% ABV is exceptional. Spirit fills the cask at roughly 63.5% under standard industry filling practice; thirteen years later, that's typically dropped to the high fifties or low sixties through evaporation. An ABV well above fill strength after a decade-plus of maturation indicates a first-fill cask in a particularly cool warehouse where water evaporates faster than alcohol, concentrating the spirit rather than diluting it. That's an unusual outcome and points to a cask filled directly from the wine residue without the moisture buffer a refill cask would have.

Moscatel as a cask type brings aromatic floral grape, orange blossom and a sweeter fruit-flesh quality into the spirit during maturation. The wine itself ages in seasoned oak in Andalusia or Setúbal, and the cask wood carries the residue of that intensity. On unpeated Bunnahabhain, the combination tends to push aromatic perfume against the distillery's natural oiliness and salinity. At 67.9% the bottle drinks with significant heat. Water is essential for opening up the Moscatel aromatics, and even small amounts make a real difference. Single cask, natural colour, non-chill-filtered.