This is a pre arrival offering with a firm cutoff date. Timing is an estimate and can shift due to carrier schedules, port congestion, customs, or warehouse receiving.
Obscurities & Curiosities, Bunnahabhain 18 Year Old, Oloroso Sherry Butt
Bunnahabhain, distilled in 2008 and matured for eighteen years in a fresh Oloroso sherry butt, bottled by North Star Spirits in 2026 at 59.6% cask strength for their Obscurities & Curiosities range: a series built on good age statements, full sherry maturation and distilleries from every region. This is the Islay release.
Bunnahabhain is the Islay distillery that mostly does not smoke. Its unpeated spirit is nutty, malty and coastal, and it has always loved sherry wood. Eighteen years in a first fill Oloroso butt is the full-volume version of that relationship: figs, roasted chestnuts, salted fudge and sea air, with the muscle to match the strongman on the label. When Iain Croucher offered this one, Jay's reply was absolutely to the Bunna, maybe I take a bunch. He did. 120 bottles for the United States.
About Obscurities & Curiosities
In North Star's own words: sometimes we are lucky enough to find whiskies that are astonishing oddities and bizarrely exceptional. The deliciously obscure whisky in this bottle has certainly piqued our curiosity. Please take a seat and enjoy the show.
Obscurities & Curiosities is the sideshow range from North Star Spirits, Iain Croucher's Dumbarton bottler, now ten years old. Vintage circus posters on the labels, serious casks inside: every release carries a real age statement and full sherry maturation. The Miltonduff 13 Octave was the first O&C to reach America; this is the second wave.
Distillery profile, Bunnahabhain
- Founded in 1881 on the north-east coast of Islay, at the end of a single-track road, facing the Sound of Islay and Jura.
- Owned by Distell (now Heineken). Unusually for Islay, the core spirit is unpeated; the peated Moine runs are the exception.
- House style is nutty, malty and maritime, with a gentle coastal salt that comes from warehouses right on the shore.
- Sherry-matured Bunnahabhain at real age is one of the most collected styles on the island, and most of it never leaves the UK.
Cask profile, fresh Oloroso butt
A fresh Oloroso sherry butt is a 500 litre cask straight from the bodega, seasoned with dry Oloroso and filled with whisky for the first time. It gives everything it has: dried fruit, walnut, dark chocolate, leather, and the deep colour to match.
Eighteen years of that on an unpeated coastal spirit builds a whisky with real weight: date pudding, fudge and pecan over Bunnahabhain's salt and malt. At 59.6% after eighteen years it has lost very little strength.
Glasgow's Good Spirits Co. put it simply: this is braw. Chocolate, mocha coffee, fruit cake heavy on the glace cherries, and really good aged balsamic. Distilled 2008, bottled 2026. Outturn to follow when the bottles land.
| Specification | Details |
|---|---|
| Brand | North Star Spirits, Obscurities & Curiosities |
| Style | Single malt Scotch whisky, single cask, unpeated |
| Region | Islay |
| Distillery | Bunnahabhain |
| Age | 18 years |
| ABV | 59.6% (cask strength) |
| Volume | 700ml |
| Cask | Fresh Oloroso sherry butt, full maturation |
| Distilled | 2008 |
| Bottled | 2026 |
| Natural colour | Yes |
| Non-chill filtered | Yes |
| USA allocation | 120 bottles |
| Availability | Pre-order, October Import, arrives November 4, 2026 |
The Whiskey Lab's Quality Commitments
- Single Cask & Small Batch: Ensuring a unique profile for each release.
- Natural Colour & Non-Chill Filtered: Preserving the authentic character and purity of the whisky.
- Honest Storytelling: Every cask profile written by people who actually handled the liquid.
