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| Hi, this is one of our (almost) daily tastings. Santé! |
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June 3, 2020 |
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Good, we let them accumulate once again, time to try to empty the boxes and the shelves. Not a very easy task, in my experience Bowmore is not quite a malt that you could have many drams in a row of. We won’t have many OBs by the way and shall try to avoid the excessively oaked/wined ones as a general rule – not talking about good old well-handled sherry, naturally. Oh and we may do this randomly, for more fun. So eenie meenie… But first, the apero. |
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Bowmore 12 yo (40%, OB, +/-2019) 
Sure the strength is criminal, but we’ve always respected the 12 more than many other core-of-range OBs. Colour: gold. Nose: artichokes, asparagus, pinewood smoke, mashed potatoes, ink, new rubber boots, kelp, olive oil, lapsang souchong. All very well, just a tad ‘low’. The profile’s perfect. Mouth: it’s an excellent juice, love the olives, lemons, clams, kippers, ashes, the tiny touches of soy sauce, the notes of wild leek, beans, houmous, salty waters (Vichy), aspirin… What a shame that they murder this one – or at least handicap it – with the lousy 40%, it could be a winner. Finish: medium, extremely briny. Comments: let this fantastic juice live! 87 points guaranteed at 43%, 89 at 46% vol.
SGP:455 - 84 points. |
Right, I think we’re ready… |
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Bowmore 2000/2019 (53.3%, Malts of Scotland, bourbon hogshead, cask #MoS 19006, 248 bottles) 
A good start with a good bottler! Colour: gold. Nose: creosote on ueber-maximum here, dentist’s mouthwash, pine essential oil, some kind of eucalyptus smoke, some hay, kippers, engine oil, old copper coins and then band-aid. A drop of banana liqueur at the ‘easier’ department. It’s more medicinal than your average Bowmore, I enjoy this nose rather a lot. With water: soot and fern all over the place, hessian, sheep’s wool, and perhaps one small vine peach… Mouth: excellent, classic and classy peppery and coastal Bowmore, with a smokiness that’s pretty aggressive. IN a good way, so problems at all. With water: lemon balm coming out, citrons, seawater, clams… Finish: long, salty, on sour apples, camphor, iodine, pencil lead and fatter kippers. Ashy aftertaste. Comments: rather a drier and more medicinal Bowmore. Tops, this starts well.
SGP:357 - 87 points. |
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Bowmore 17 yo 2002/2019 ‘One Small Step’ (54.6%, The Whisky Barrel, first fill oloroso sherry hogshead, cask #TWB1010, 270 bottles) 
I would have called this baby One Small Sip instead, but there, that would have lacked steam and glory. Now oloroso and peat, tremble, mere mortal… Colour: dark amber. Nose: phew, that worked. Fumes and pinewood smoke, boosted miso, metal polish, heavy menthol, embrocations, heady Dutch liquorice, oxtail soup, Bovril, proper old balsamico, and rather cooked blackberries at the fruit department. And peonies at the flowers’. With water: more earth, more miso, more old pu-ehr, more pipe tobacco. Mouth (neat): pretty amazing, almost all on some raspberry ganache made with dark bitter chocolate and wild raspberries. Just a tad monolithic when neat, perhaps, but superb. With water: the Bowmoreness comes out, with some salt, seashells, wakame, kippers, lime, cracked pepper, tamarind jam (that’s not the distillate, mind you)… Finish: very long, with more pepper and bitter chocolate. Green pepper. Black tobacco in the aftertaste – sucking your untipped Gauloise. Comments: brilliant. Cellar for ten years and you’ll have a shining star (if not Black Bowmore, ha-ha).
SGP:367 - 90 points. |
Some heavy sherry, good idea… |
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Bowmore 2001/2019 (49.2%, Malts of Scotland, Warehouse shop, sherry hogshead, cask #MoS 19021, 139 bottles)
This one was available at MoS’s Warehouse Shop in Paderborn. Colour: amber/bronze. Perhaps a nail or a patch… Nose: much less extreme than the slightly monstrous Whisky Barrel, but still in line with the properly good sherried Bowmores. Blood oranges, bouillons, cow stable, horse saddle, hay, cigars, chocolate, balsamico, hessian, marrow… No, in truth this is rather fantastic, as it keeps unfolding over many long minutes. No, it’s even dazzlingly fantastic. Mouth: amazing. Classic Bowmore of old, incredibly full of small red berries, chocolate, tobacco, meats, soups, game (grouse), plus… oh hell and putrefaction, please call the Anti-Maltoporn Brigade! Finish: I’ll mention only one flavour, pink pepper. Comments: it’s still got a few rough edges here and there, but once again, ten years in a good cellar (mine, for example) and you'll be a long way from here. In my book, Bowmore’s the typical malt whisky that ought to be cellared. Don’t you enjoy a few controversies? We’re not talking to you, Beam Suntory.
SGP:567- 92 points. |
Believe me, we’re too fastly and bigly high, but what could we do?... Not our fault, it’s Bowmore’s and Obama’s… |
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Bowmore 14 yo 2001/2016 (51.8%, Hunter Laing, Old Malt Cask, Asia, refill butt, cask #12280, 402 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: this one’s more traditionally lemony, with notes of oysters and seaweed, then lemon marmalade and some unexpected touches of morello cherries. Or pinot noir. And yet I doubt it’s seen any red wine during its life (terrific news if you ask me). With water: classic Bowmore, with just a touch of sulphur. Perhaps more than just a touch, but there. Mouth (neat): very good. Marmalade and raisins, plus some salty liquorice and the usual kippers. Did anyone ever try to smoke figs? Our Turkish friends? With water: all good, if a tad leathery. Camphor, rhubarb, mint, tobacco, more leather. Finish: rather long, with quite some peppermint. Unexpected too, that. Leather again in the aftertaste. Comments: excellent, but the wee sulphury tones have cost it a fistful of points.
SGP:466 - 87 points. |
Good, five’s a good number, see you tomorrow. |
 Check the index of all Bowmore malts we've tasted so far
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