Club Mareva Beirut is pleased to welcome an exceptional new bottle to our Signatory Vintage collection: the Bunnahabhain 1978 45 Year Old, Signatory Vintage 35th Anniversary Rare Reserve.
Distilled on 3 April 1978, this single-cask Islay whisky matured for 45 years in Oloroso sherry butt No. 2588. It was bottled on 5 October 2023 at its natural cask strength of 42.6% ABV. Only 351 bottles were released worldwide; Club Mareva Beirut holds bottle No. 305.
Forty-Five Years in a Single Cask
Bunnahabhain is one of Islay's most distinctive distilleries, known for a gentler, typically unpeated interpretation of the island's whisky style. Signatory Vintage, founded by Andrew Symington in 1988, has become one of Scotland's most respected independent bottlers, particularly for presenting individual casks with minimal intervention.
For its 35th anniversary in 2023, Signatory selected a series of exceptional single casks for a commemorative collection. Cask No. 2588 was among them. Filled in 1978, it held this Bunnahabhain for more than four decades, making the whisky's identity inseparable from its long maturation and the singular cask from which all 351 bottles originated.
A Whisky for the Cigar Lounge
WhiskyNotes describes red apple, berries, plum, raisins and almonds, followed by cigar box, coffee, cinnamon, walnut oil, spiced plum, tobacco leaf, dark tea, bergamot and aromatic herbs.
That profile is particularly compelling in a cigar lounge. Dried fruit, nuts, wood, coffee, spice and tobacco leaf create natural points of connection with aged tobacco without allowing either the whisky or the cigar to disappear.
A refined Dominican cigar could preserve the whisky's subtler fruit and aromatic qualities. A mature Cuban cigar could deepen its cedar, earth and tobacco notes, while a richer Nicaraguan blend could emphasize coffee, walnut and spice.
This is a bottle worth approaching slowly.
Bottle Details
Origin and age
Bunnahabhain, Islay · 1978 vintage · distilled 3 April 1978 · 45 years old
Cask and strength
Single Oloroso sherry butt No. 2588
Natural cask strength · 42.6% ABV · 700 ml
Release
Bottled 5 October 2023 by Signatory Vintage for its 35th Anniversary Rare Reserve, Cask Strength Collection · 351 bottles worldwide · Club Mareva Beirut bottle No. 305 of 351
As of October 2026, Whiskybase records a community rating of 90.54 out of 100 from 51 ratings.
This bottle also belongs to a wider Signatory Vintage story at the club. Read about our commitment to Signatory Vintage and revisit Trust Your Palate, our blind tasting of five Signatory bottlings.
More Than Another Bottle on the Back Bar
Our Signatory Vintage collection has never been about accumulating bottles simply because they are rare. The objective is to assemble whiskies with stories worth preserving and, eventually, worth opening.
A whisky distilled in 1978, matured for 45 years and selected by one of Scotland's leading independent bottlers for its anniversary collection is precisely the kind of bottle that belongs here.
Bunnahabhain 1978 45 Year Old, Cask No. 2588, Bottle No. 305 of 351.
A piece of Islay history has arrived at Club Mareva Beirut.
