About Bunnahabhain

The Bunnahabhain distillery is located in the northeast of the island of Islay on the water that separates the islands of Islay and Jura. The distillery is the most northerly located on the island and has a beautiful view of the "Paps of Jura". Bunnahabhain comes from the Gaelic and means "Mouth of the river". The distillery was built at the mouth of the Margadele River. The first new spirit left the distillery in the year 1882. Little has changed or modernized the distillery to this day. Only the malting floors have been removed and in 1963 two stills were added. In the stillhouse there are two wash stills and two spirit stills. They are relatively small stills and they are heated with steam. The six washbacks are made of Oregon pine. No specific wood is used for maturing the malts at Bunnahabhain, to prevent it from influencing the character of the malt too much. A mix of bourbon, sherry and refill casks is used. Like all other distilleries on Islay, Bunnahabhain also obtains its malt from the Port Ellen malthouse. The big difference with the other distilleries on Islay is that Bunnahabhain does not dry the malt with peat but with warm air. As a result, this Islay malt has no smoke or peat flavour. The water to make the malt comes from a water source on Margadale Hill. The water from this source is pumped up from a great depth and led to the distillery via a pipeline. This is to prevent the water from coming into contact with peat.