Bunnahabhain 21 Years Old 2004 (Decadent Drinks)

Decadent Drinks is the indie bottling label run by Angus MacRaild and the Whisky Sponge crew, with a separate retail leg under the same ownership. The Old Islay name covers their releases of older Islay stock that doesn't fit neatly under the headline Decadent Drams or Sponge labels. This 21 year old comes from spirit distilled in 2004 and is fully sherry-matured. 296 bottles, 55% natural strength, bottled in 2026. The cask history runs through three sherry vessels in succession. Initial maturation was in a combination of first-fill Oloroso butts and first-fill Pedro Ximénez butts, with the final years finishing in a first-fill Pedro Ximénez hogshead. Three first-fill sherry casks across 21 years is a heavy wood programme by any standard, the spirit has spent its entire life in active sherry-seasoned oak, with the smaller PX hogshead at the end intensifying the wood-to-spirit ratio for the closing years. The expected result is dense, sherry-led whisky pulling in two directions: Oloroso's nutty, walnut-and-leather depth from the first stretch, then Pedro Ximénez's sticky raisin, fig-paste and treacle weight from the longer sherry years. The PX hogshead finish concentrates the dried-fruit sweetness and usually pulls a darker, more chocolate-bitter edge out of the wood. Bunnahabhain's natural oiliness gives the texture to carry that much sherry without collapsing into syrup. Released as part of Decadent Drinks' 2026 small-batch programme, natural colour, non-chill-filtered.