Bunnahabhain

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Founded

1881

Region

Islay

Status

Operational

Company

Distell Group

Production type

Single Malt

Production capacity

2,700,000 litres per year

Bunnahabhain is an Islay single malt whisky distillery, located near Port Askaig on the north-west coast of the island where it overlooks the Sound of Islay to neighbouring Jura. The distillery was opened in 1881 by the Islay Distillery Company, which later merged with William Grant & Co to form Highland Distillers. It was sold to Burn Stewart Distillers in 2003 which is now part of the Distell Group, a South African multinational with several other Scotch whisky interests.

The preferred production style at Bunnahabhain is a non-peated single malt, however it does produce several peated varieties as well.

Production from Bunnahabhain distillery was so prized by Highland Distillers for its blended Scotch brands that it made very little available for single malt bottling. In fact, while it began selling single malts from every other distillery in its portfolio from the 1960s, it was not until 1979 that a Bunnahabhain brand was introduced. Even then it was somewhat half-hearted, available only in a single 12-year-old expression and despite now being synonymous with it, the bottle design was reused from earlier released of Tamdhu and Highland Park.

The 12-year-old remained the only core range age statement until 2006 when the range was revamped by Burn Stewart Distillers. New 18- and 25-year-old expressions were accompanied in the rebrand by a modified bottle design that is still in use today. The range was updated again in 2010 as the whiskies switched to being bottled non-chill filtered, and the standard ABV across the portfolio was upped from 40% to 46.3%.

The current core range has been in place since 2017, and includes 12-, 18-, 25-, 30- and 40-year-old age statements. These are joined by two non age statement whiskies: the sherry-casked Stiuireadair and a peated single malt called Toiteach A Dhà.

Current owner

2013-present

2003-2013

1999-2003

1887-1999

Bunnahabhain Distillery
Bunnahabhain
Isle of Islay
PA46 7RP
Scotland

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