Wemyss The Viceroy’s Elixir 1987 Bunnahabhain 29 Years Review

I picked up this Wemyss The Viceroy’s Elixir 1987 Bunnahabhain 29 Years, for a sherry monster battle we did for LAWS based on the strength and notes of Serge’s review. On the whole, he usually steers me right, but here we have a time where it wasn’t quite as advertised. Especially when it came to the sulfur department.

Wemyss The Viceroy's Elixir 1987 Bunnahabhain 29 Years

I haven’t covered a whole lot of Wemyss on the site except for the occasional Malt Nuts roundup, so if this is a new looking bottle to you I’ll give a quick rundown. Wemyss is an independent bottler from Edinburgh, Scotland. They source and bottle casks from distilleries and then “use the taste and aromas of the individual whiskies to identify each bottling”. Easy Peasy.

Wemyss The Viceroy’s Elixir 1987 Bunnahabhain 29 Years Review: Details and Tasting Notes

Wemyss is an independent bottler from Scotland. They bottled this 29-year-old single sherry butt from Bunnahabhain and called it the The Viceroy's Elixir. Distilled in 1987 and bottled in 2017.

In Wemyss’s Words: Wemyss The Viceroy’s Elixir 1987 Bunnahabhain 29 Years

This BUTT evokes a royal elixir of rich, red berry fruits served in a mahogany goblet.

Wemyss The Viceroy’s Elixir 1987 Bunnahabhain 29 Years price, ABV, age and other details

Region: Islay, Scotland

Distiller: Bunnahabhain
Bottler: Wemyss
Mash Bill: 100% Malted Barley
Cask: ex-Sherry Butt
Age: 29 Years
ABV: 46%

Non-Chill Filtered | Natural Color

Batch: The Viceroy’s Elixir 1987

Price: $300

Wemyss The Viceroy’s Elixir 1987 Bunnahabhain 29 Years Tasting Notes

EYE
Hazy ruby

NOSE
Rich sherry, juicy dark fruit, leather, cocoa, baking spice and candied orange peels, cherry heavy dark fruit and a bit of sulfur and Fruity Pebbles.

PALATE
Sulfur… a lot of sulfur, it dominates with bits of dried dark fruit, leather, cinnamon oil, char, cocoa, nuts and citrus peeking through.

FINISH
Medium -> Dark fruit, sulfur, spice and vanilla.

BALANCE, BODY & FEEL
Not balanced, medium body, warm and sticky feel.

Wemyss The Viceroy’s Elixir 1987 Bunnahabhain 29 Years Review: OVERALL

Wemyss The Viceroy's Elixir 1987 Bunnahabhain 29 Years Review

The nose is great, filled with all the notes you’d expect from an old sherried whisky, but the palate and the finish are a muddy sulfury mess. I picked up this Wemyss The Viceroy’s Elixir 1987 Bunnahabhain 29 Years on Serge’s “recommendation” for a LAWS meeting and the sulfur level, freshly opened, was off the charts. Over the last few months it’s mostly faded from the aroma, but is still clinging heavily to the flavor and aroma.

The funny thing is, when I was looking at picking this up, I was worried it would be a Sulfur bomb, but on Whisky Fun Serge wrote that it had “No sulfur whatsoever” and so I pounced. The re-learned lesson being, tastes are different. This isn’t the first time I’ve ran into something like this from folks I read, and it won’t be the last. It’s all part of the game.

SCORE: 75/100 (C)