Bunnahabhain 17 Years Old 2008 Cask #C25135 (Claxton’s)

Claxton's was set up in 2011 by Jack Hoose and Graeme Claxton, originally buying single casks for personal use before turning the project into a business that launched its first commercial range in 2015. Based now at the Dalswinton Bond on the banks of the River Nith in the Scottish Lowlands, the bottler runs several distinct ranges; Warehouse No.1 is the flagship, dedicated to traditional dunnage-warehouse-matured single casks selected as the strongest example of each spirit type they handle. Cask C25135 is one of those, a 17 year old Bunnahabhain bottled in 2025 at 56.6% natural strength. The maturation is in Oloroso sherry, the classic pairing for Bunnahabhain's unpeated, oily distillate. Oloroso's oxidative ageing in fortified-wine seasoned oak transfers walnut, dried fruit and leather depth into the wood, and seventeen years gives the cask plenty of time to push that into the spirit without crossing into the heavy, syrupy register that the longest sherry maturations sometimes produce. Claxton's recent Warehouse No.1 sherry-matured bottlings have collected tasting notes around stewed fruit, dried apricot, gingerbread and oak spice, characteristic mid-life Oloroso markers. Underneath, Bunnahabhain's coastal salinity and oily texture provide the spine. The high natural strength carries the cask aromatics cleanly without water, though a few drops are typical for opening up the dried-fruit notes on the nose. Natural colour, non-chill-filtered, single cask.