Bunnahabhain and its names… I don’t have much trouble pronouncing and spelling Bunna’s awkwardly named expressions. But this following anecdote is a reminder of the fact that it doesn’t always come in handy. Or maybe it does…

It was on Islay, the nursery of many tasty whiskies, when we tasted an expression called Darach Ur. I should have reminded the name, because it strongly sounds like something Tolkien totally would come up with. Fits the recent Game of Thrones whisky hype of where popular books are used for marketing. But that’s literally another story.

I tasted it blind and scored the Darach Ur pretty high, so when I visited a shop in The Netherlands and saw a bottle of which I thought had the same name, I bought it without thinking too much. Then I went through my notebook and saw I didn’t bought that delicious dram, but an An Cladach instead. Stupid me! Or am I?

An Cladach is a fairly recent addition to Bunnahabhain’s travel retail line-up and contains sherry matured whisky. It’s very affordable (€45 for a litre) and bottled at 50% ABV without chill filtration and colouring. No age statement, but I’m not the guy who gives a dram if the taste is good. And to be fair, the taste isn’t too shabby! In fact, it’s quite good even:

Well, if that isn’t a pleasant mistake I made, I don’t know what is. I would recommend it anyone who likes this style of whisky. It’s not a sherry bomb, it’s peachy and nutty instead, with a minerally and earthy base. Slaìnte to Bunnahabhain and the headache it gives to people who like to play Scrabble or crosswords!