Bunnahabhain

Bunnahabhain was built in 1881 at the northern end of Islay, on the shore of the Sound of Islay looking across to Jura, and ran its first spirit in 1882. Its water comes from the Margadale spring a mile inland, piped to the distillery.

What sets it apart is a choice. On an island defined by smoke, Bunnahabhain is made largely unpeated, and its stills are the tallest on Islay with unusually long swan necks, which lightens the spirit further. Sherry casks are a large part of its maturation, alongside bourbon, and it is bottled without chill-filtration and without added colour, so the colour in the glass is the cask's work rather than a dye's.

That combination — a rich, oily, unpeated malt raised on a smoky island — is what the name is known for rather than any one bottle. The distillery does make a peated whisky, released as Mòine, and its long-aged sherry-matured stock is the part collectors follow: casks and bottlings from the 1960s and 70s are the ones they watch for.