Bunnahabhain 14 Years Old 2009 Cask #358 (Connoisseurs Choice)

Gordon & MacPhail's Connoisseurs Choice line was launched in 1968, making it one of the very first dedicated independent single-malt ranges in the Scotch industry, and has run continuously since. The Cask Strength tier within Connoisseurs Choice carries individually selected casks at natural strength rather than the diluted core-range presentation. Cask 358 from G&M's filling ledger holds 2009-vintage Bunnahabhain that was bottled in 2024 at 57.6% natural strength after fourteen years of maturation.

The cask is Oloroso sherry. Bunnahabhain has been a long-standing supplier into G&M's Bunnahabhain inventory, and Oloroso is the consistent dominant style across the bottler's releases of the distillery. At fourteen years, the spirit is well past the new-make stage but hasn't entered the very long sherry register where the cask starts to push into chocolate-bitter territory. The wood is delivering classic mid-life Oloroso markers: nutty walnut, dried fig, leather and toasted oak.

Spirit from the 2009 vintage was distilled during the Burn Stewart ownership era of Bunnahabhain, before the 2014 transition to Distell. The 57.6% bottling strength after fourteen years suggests cool warehouse storage with measured evaporation, preserving spirit weight and concentration. Expect the Bunnahabhain coastal profile leading the palate: oiliness, light maritime brine, the underlying mineral spring-water signature. Oloroso's nutty fig-and-walnut character providing the wood frame. Natural colour, non-chill-filtered, single cask.