Feis Ile Fomo (and how to deal with it)

Late May, early June is marked at many a whisky enthusiast’s calendar, as it’s the time when the annual Feis Ile festival takes place – a series of festivities on the isle of Islay, or, as it is also known: whisky island. Although it’s by far not all about whisky – Feis Ile celebrates local folklore, music and other aspects of the rich cultural heritage of Islay, every operating distillery on the island (9 and counting) partakes and contributes. Whisky lovers the world over, particularly those with a soft spot for the peaty stuff, have discovered and embraced Feis Ile, up to a point where it’ll take months of advanced planning and booking for both accommodations and special events if you even want to stand a chance of being part of it. Such is the popularity of Islay and Feis Ile these days and although I have never been fortunate enough to visit, I am in two minds about my perspectives of ever visiting Feis Ile given the current situation. On the one hand, I feel I almost owe it to myself to make the pilgrimage. On the other hand, I think Islay, and particularly Feis Ile, is nearing the point where it might succumb to its own popularity, as the long term impact of receiving thousands and thousands of visitors in such a small timespan on a relatively small and remote island, might outweigh the short term economic and social benefits. But that’s just me being my usual ray of bloody sunshine, obviously.

In any case, there is simply no denying the huge attraction Islay has on whiskylovers, and Feis Ile seems to have become the annual celebration of it. Reaping the rich crops of its popularity, there isn’t one distillery on Islay at the moment that doesn’t release special Feis Ile bottlings this time of year, and if you want to ‘catch them all’, you better have pretty deep pockets. Initially, most special releases were sold more or less exclusively on the island, during the festival at the distilleries, and most if not all of it would have sold out by the time the last ferry took back the last visitors to mainland Scotland. In recent years though, a lot of distilleries have made sure their Feis Ile batches saw a significant increase in outturn (sometimes alongside a more limited, more exclusive release), making it possible to distribute them to other markets. Which again showcases its popularity, and incidentally is also how I got my hands on a sample of one of them (owing again a great deal of gratitude to Jonas from The Whisky Barn who kindly provided me with one). Even so, you’ll likely need to be rather quick on the trigger finger if you want to secure yourself a bottle at RRP, because just like anything else with the words ‘Islay’ and ‘limited release’ on the label, rest assured these Feis Ile releases are pretty much regarded as open season for flippers (may they develop a nasty, itchy rash just out of arm’s reach for the rest of their days).

So, rather than jumping straight into the rat race myself, I thought it might be interesting and fun to dedicate the next couple of weeks to Islay whiskies, not particularly trying to hunt down and secure myself some Feis Ile bottles or samples for you to review, but rather take a step back and put the focus on other Islay releases. Bottles which perhaps should or should not be on your radar and won’t cost you an arm and a leg (and some much needed peace of mind) to hunt down. Because it seems that having ‘Feis Ilse’ written on a bottle label, automatically increases the price and value. Weird, huh?! So, how to deal with Feis Ile FOMO will lock in on other interesting Islay whiskies. But seeing how I have this sample at hand, and how it’s always useful to have some sort of benchmark, let’s indeed kick things off with one of this year’s Feis Ile releases, shall we?

Bunnahabhain Feis Ile 2023 Canasta Sherry Casks. 51.2% ABV, NC, UCF, app. £95/€115

This is one of the two Bunna releases for the 2023 Feis Ile festival. The other being a 24 year old and yours for the modest sum of about £450 (and if you feel that’s outrageous, I can only recommend that you don’t take a look at what Diageo is expecting you to pay for their 14 yo Laga or the 20 yo Caol Ila). This NAS is significantly less harsh on your purse, but at about £95, it’s not exactly a bargain either in my book. What immediately takes my interest, is the reference to the Canasta sherry casks it was matured in, because to be honest, I was hitherto unfamiliar with it. A bit of googling (‘research’ is stretching things a bit here I reckon) and I soon learned that Canasta casks (meaning ‘basket’ in Spanish) is a cream sherry made initially from Oloroso sherry which was then ‘finished’ or further ‘matured’ by mixing it with PX sherry. Furthermore, it seems to be a thing done exclusively by one bodega/producer – Williams & Humbert, who created this sherry to bring that mixture of red fruits, PX sweetness and Oloroso nuttiness and spice. We live and learn…

Nose

Nutty and fruity with berries and blackcurrant. Salty-sea breezy as well. There are soft notes of treacle and gently roasted coffee. Over time, the red fruit notes become more dominant with a confectionery touch to them. Overall, it suggests and promises richness, while at the same time remaining subtle and restrained enough to make you want to explore further.

Palate

Full on, hefty arrival. Bye bye subtlety, indeed! Quite a big hit of nuts and oak, followed by dried red fruits and a second big hit of salinity. The treacle and roasted notes are also cranked up a notch, making the whole experience bolder and bigger compared to that almost understated nose. The mouthfeel is driven by those drying oak notes. All the while, this manages to remain well balanced.

Finish

Long, oaky and nutty and increasingly drying.

Final thoughts

There are quite some signature Bunnahabhain notes to be found here (or at least what I consider to be signature Bunna notes) with the nuttiness and blackcurrant and berries. Which is a good thing. And yet, this has its own distinctive character, bringing something new to the game as well. Despite the significant wood influence, I’d wager that on the whole this isn’t overly old, meaning that the oak and wood notes come from the maturation in very active casks rather than the spirit spending ages and ages in wooden vessels. I really enjoyed it, and I really feel this is very good whisky. Would I be inclined to pay close to or even north of £100 though? I’m not 100% convinced. Obviously we want to see as much good whisky at affordable prices as possible, and I get that the overhead costs for limited releases are relatively high compared to core range releases and also bearing in mind that the market is what it is today (a tendency to charge according to what the market will allow, rather than intrinsic quality and production costs, knowing full well it will sell regardless) and comparing it with other Feis Ile releases, so I tend to give it the benefit of the doubt here and state that this delivers for the price, albeit only just.

So that’s my 2 cents on what I got to taste of this year’s Feis Ile. The benchmark has been set, and it’s a good one for sure. So next week, what do you say we talk about a cask strength Kilchoman?