Bunnahabhain Sherried Smoke (The Vintage Malt Whisky Co Ltd.)

The Cooper's Choice is the standard single-cask line from The Vintage Malt Whisky Co, the Glasgow-based bottler founded by Brian Crook in 1992 after his earlier career working with Auchentoshan and Morrison Bowmore. The Cooper's Choice line operates at a bottling strength point below the premium Golden Cut tier but holds the same single-cask, non-chill-filtered presentation philosophy. This release, named Sherried Smoke for its expected flavour direction, comes from heavily peated cask 0322 bottled at 46%.

The cask programme is American oak ex-bourbon for primary maturation followed by an Oloroso sherry finish. The American oak base supplies vanilla, coconut and toasted-corn lactones during the long primary stretch, with the heavy char layer adding caramelised-sugar weight. Oloroso is then layered on top: the cask wood has been seasoned with oxidatively aged sherry, transferring nutty walnut, dried fig and leather into the spirit during finishing rather than the lighter biological-aged styles that fino or amontillado would produce.

On heavily peated Bunnahabhain spirit, the dual-cask programme produces the smoke-against-sherry profile the bottler's name flags. Expect dried fig and walnut from the Oloroso, vanilla and toasted oak from the bourbon underneath, and the distillery's earthier Mòine smoke threading through the whole. The 46% bottling sits at the Cooper's Choice house presentation rather than full cask strength. Single cask, natural colour, non-chill-filtered.