October 2026 – Bunnahabhain 12 Yr Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Producer: Bunnahabhain | Expression: 12 Yr Old Single Malt Scrotch Whisky Finished in Madeira Hogsheads
Volume: 70cl | ABV: 46.8% | Natural Colour | Non-Chill Filtered
This month we have teamed up with Rare Find, an award-winning independent bottler based in Edinburgh, with more than a decade spent seeking out exceptional casks and giving them the time, care and attention to become something remarkable.
Independent bottlers source casks from various distilleries, looking for individual examples with the character and potential to become something memorable. The same spirit can take you in very different directions depending on the cask type, the maturation and what happens along the way.
Rare Find doesn’t simply find a cask, bottle it and move on. They store, curate and nurture thousands of casks throughout their lives, tasting and assessing them as they mature and evolve. Sometimes that means leaving them alone; sometimes it means moving them into a different cask or giving them a carefully considered finish. Always, the aim is the same: to reveal more of the spirit’s character, never to obscure it.
By collaborating with Rare Find we have been able to get access to a distillery I’ve wanted to share since I started the Club, as well as giving us a different experience away from the distillery’s own bottlings.
As Rare Find have cared for this whisky, I thought it best to let them introduce it.
“There are some whiskies that reward exploration. This is one of them.
Your latest Club Bottle is a 12-Year-Old Bunnahabhain, bottled by Rare Find and finished for three years in Madeira hogsheads. It is an exclusive release created especially for you – and one that we think makes a particularly delicious case for what an independent bottler can do with a great spirit and the right cask.
Bunnahabhain has been making whisky on Islay’s remote north-eastern coast since 1881. Unlike many of its neighbours, its signature style is unpeated: rich, oily and full of character, with a gentle maritime influence rather than a wall of smoke. It is a spirit with plenty of personality of its own.
The Madeira finish brings something very different to the conversation. It is rich without being heavy, sweet without becoming cloying, and there is enough of the original spirit character beneath the cask influence to make every sip interesting. In other words, this is Bunnahabhain seen through a different lens”.
For people who want to get closer to Rare Find’s independent bottlings, they offer lifetime membership to the Rare Find Vault.
For a one-off membership fee of £50, Vault members receive access to exclusive bottlings, advance notice of new Rare Find bottlings, tastings, partner-bar benefits and 10% off purchases from the Rare Find website. Details are at www.rarefindwhisky.co.uk/jointherarefindvault
If you are interested in signing up to the Rare Find Vault, use the code SUMMERTONBUNNA by 30th November 2026 to receive both free shipping of your welcome pack, and to be entered into a prize draw to win a bottle of the Vault Exclusive Aultmore 15-year-old.
OCTOBER OPTIONAL SECOND CLUB BOTTLE: INVERGORDON 21 YEAR OLD SINGLE GRAIN WHISKY
The return of our Invergordon Single Grain, which has spent an extra year in an Amarone Barrique, making it all about the cask finish and its dark fruit flavours.
Amarone is the wine that made Valpolicella famous, a dry red wine from dried grapes that contains an explosion of extraordinary aromas and flavours.
The grapes, carefully selected, are placed in crates of about 6 kg and transferred to the drying room, where the drying process lasts about 100 days. During this period, the grapes lose 30-40% of their water, concentrating sugars and aromas. Once the drying process is complete, the grapes are gently pressed and fermented, where maceration continues for about 30 days, extracting all structural components. After fermentation, the wine matures in oak casks, further refining its character before being bottled and resting for another 12 months. It is these casks that we have used to finish this whisky.
