Bowmore 17 yo 2002/2019 (53.6%, Cadenhead Single Cask, bourbon hogshead, 294 bottles)
Colour: white wine. Nose: crushed nettles, crisp sauvignon blanc, flint smoke, lime, chalk dusters and crab sticks. This impression of beach foam and sand and rock pools emerging quite vividly. Pure, clean and pretty immaculate distillate driven, modern era Bowmore. With water: crystal clear minerals and taut smokiness. Briny and medical with these hints of gauze and antiseptic. Mouth: Indeed, extremely coastal, limey, pure, citric acidity, seawater, lemon juice on an oyster, wet pebbles, seaweed crackers and green olives. With water: gets a little oilier in texture and reveals a few woozy citrus fruits like grapefruit and lemon, then perhaps a more tropical edge emerging. Pretty superb! Finish: long, and full of crystalline peat, seawater, lime and a wee puff of boiler smoke. Comments: The word that springs to mind is flawless. What I love about these Bowmore vintages is that they are modern and technically brilliant but, unlike many other very good contemporary makes, they also feel like they have something of a soul about them.
SGP: 456 - 89 points.

Bowmore 18 yo 2001/2020 (55.2%, North Star, refill barrel, 190 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: a richer and more opulently fruity style. Soft vanilla layered with tropical fruit syrups and fruit salad juices. There’s also that crisp smokiness and wee touches of leather and brine about it. A slightly more active cask has really worked here I think. You really feel these wee nods towards old school, fruity Bowmore coming through. Some nibbling green pepperiness too. With water: the briny and coastal aspects really emerge loudly now. Something like smoked olive oil, seawater, pollen and gorse flower. Mouth: the oak is indeed quite present at first, lots of spices, vanilla cream, beach foam, sandalwood, dried wildflowers and smoked cereals. Also things like canvass, putty, soot and tarry rope. I also get some crystallised exotic fruits and dried mango. With water: coconut water, soy sauce, sweetened cough medicines, lemon barley water and wee hints of petrol and pure brine. Finish: long with a wonderfully elegant smokiness, citrus rind, natural tar, herbal toothpaste and more dried out exotic fruit notes. Comments: I really think the cask and the distillate are locked in some kind of intricate tango here. At least it’s not an arm wrestle! I would say water is also essential as there’s quite a few different facets buried within.
SGP: 666 - 90 points.

Bowmore 11 yo 2000/2011 (58.5%, Cadenhead Authentic Collection, bourbon barrel, 234 bottles)
Colour: bright straw. Nose: younger but this is really the same DNA. Beach foam, sand, rock pools again, also wet seaweed, hessian, cider apple and lemon juice. Pure, brilliant and vividly coastal, although also with a hefty hit of petrolic power too. With water: rather focussed on smoke now, grassy and flinty style smokiness with touches of soot, crushed seashells and ink. Perhaps some canvass too. Mouth: smoked olive oil mixed with brine and a few herbal infusions. Umami paste, salt-baked white fish and pure seawater. Direct, salty and pretty punchy. With water: big, peppery, saline and smoky with touches of chilli heat about it. Cured meats, salted fish, tar, anchovies and pickling juices. Finish: long, deeply smoky, sooty, inky, tarry and peaty. Comments: I’d say it’s maybe still on the young side, but you can see where everything is heading and the kernels of that impressive quality these stocks are showing now. Still, this is grade A beach and bonfire dramming material.
SGP: 367 - 87 points.

Bowmore 11 yo 1999/2010 (58.1%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #3.168 ‘After Dark’, first fill sherry butt, 269 bottles)
I believe this one was re-racked but I couldn’t tell you for how long. Colour: black coffee with reddish hues. Seriously dark! Nose: quite the departure! Some kind of smoked Turkish delight mixed with pitch dark chocolate, sea salt and soy sauce. Notes of Maggi, tar, salted liquorice, jasmine tea, cured game meats and old leather. The sherry here is really well integrated and the whole feels beautifully dense, syrupy and gooey. Impressions of salted caramel, walnut liqueur and root beer. With water: Irish coffee, toasted pecans and walnuts, camphor and balsamic. Mouth: perhaps a tad bitter at first, lots of tannic black tea, black pepper and herbal bitters - Jägerbombs anyone? I also get some kind of smoked raspberry jam, natural tar liqueur and cherry flavoured throat sweets. With water: dilution works well to soften things up quite a bit. Brings more meaty tones, more umami and a deep, damp earthiness. Bags of tobacco and bitter chocolate. But overall the tannins are softer. Finish: long, meaty, full of roasted nuts, game meats, coffee, tar, smoked paprika and medicines. Comments: Lovers of sherry and peat with the volume turned up to 11 should seek this one out. The bitterness is just a little too much for me, but there’s a huge amount to enjoy here and especially if you have your pipette handy.
SGP: 576 - 88 points.

Bowmore 13 yo 1996/2009 (46%, The Whisky Vault, cask #9600015/16, refill sherry, 50 bottles)
I’m not sure, but would that cask number suggest a re-rack? Colour: light gold. Nose: fresh, delicately saline, nicely coastal, lemony and softly cereal, with this ever so slightly leafy sherry profile in the background. Slightly simple but very classical and easy going, and very obviously Bowmore, which is always good news. Mouth: feels quite hefty for 46%, and the sherry comes through a little louder and more directly at first. Lots of light earthy tones, grilled meats, gentle tarriness and things like putty, camphor and wee leathery touches. Some bone dry Manzanilla perhaps, along with some posh olives. Becomes flintier and chalkier with time. Finish: long, dry, crisp, cereal, chalky, lemony and wonderfully coastal and mineral. Comments: This one starts slow but becomes really superb by the end. Seriously, a bone dry glass of high octane Manzanilla.
SGP: 365 - 88 points. 

Bowmore 20 yo 1995/2015 (55.9%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #3.253 ‘Manzanilla in Manila’, refill bourbon hogshead, 242 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: again this rather ‘foamy’ coastalness. I cannot think of foam shrimps and surfy beaches. This one is very easy and gentle and fragrant. Lots of sandalwood, dried herbs, miso, putty, lemon oil and things like clay, sun lotion and light medicinal touches. Lovely! With water: fragrant is still the word. Extremely elegant, savoury, umami and coastal now. Lots of gorse, sea air, hints of tangerine, lemon jelly and pineapple. Mouth: much weightier than the nose would suggest. Quite big an emphatic in the mouth but still showing plenty maturity. Lots of saltiness, green olives, pure peat smoke, brine, olive oil and gentle tarry notes. Bandages, hessian and a little aniseed. With water: warm, lightly smoky, saline, citrus, wee tropical touches and still pretty umami and savoury. Finish: long, coastal, sandalwood, lemon peel, chamomile tea, bonfire smoke and more dried herbs. Comments: Faultless, natural and extremely charming Bowmore. I love this super elegant and fragrant profile.
SGP: 566 - 89 points.

Bowmore 1993/2005 (56.8%, Berry Brothers, cask #500061)
A bottling with a pretty substantial reputation. Colour: straw. Nose: Indeed, this is the epitome of purity, cleanliness and pin-shape coastal inclusions. There’s also grapefruit acidity, lime, white flowers, chalk, stone fruits, guava. Very ‘1993’ in other words. Beautifully taut, structured and with an almost pristine salinity. With water: develops a big, bright and clear smokiness now. Bonfire smoke, tarry rope, camphor, lemon scented smelling salts and seawater. Wonderful! Mouth: brilliant arrival, all on green and exotic fruits such as melon, guava, mango, pineapple and passion fruit. Chalk, beach pebbles, cluttered minerals, bath salts, lime pith, kiln smoke and sandalwood ash. Feels rather like one of these old brown glass 12 year old from the 1980s at high strength. With water: there was a tension before between the smoke and the fruits, but water really negotiates a beautiful truce between these forces and adds in these wonderfully textural layers of oily peat. Some dusty notes, dried seaweed, smoked sea salt and a few crystallised exotic fruit notes. Finish: long, citric, perfectly coastal, fresh, invigorating and still wonderfully briny, smoky and lightly oily. Comments: I’ve had this one before but I remember it being as powerfully smoky as this - perhaps time has changed me rather than the whisky. Anyway, I just love the tension, balance and power on display from all the various facets within this one.
SGP: 667  - 91 points.

Bowmore 26 yo 1992/2018 (50.1%, OB for Canada, 1st fill sherry puncheon, 535 bottles)
Colour: amber. Nose: gamey, herbal and wonderfully savoury at first. Lots of smoked sea salt, bouillon broth, Maggi, anchovy paste and natural tar. The peat seems to have been extremely well preserved despite peat and time. Also miso, soy sauce and even wee hints of kippers. With water: rather linear and doubling down on cured meats, drying earthiness and lots of dark, murky salinity. Black pepper, seawater and beef stock in a cocktail shaker. Mouth: quite a bitter arrival all on herbal extracts - Jägermeister or Unicum - cocoa powder, soot and earthy black teas at first. Not totally convinced by the pairing of peat and sherry here. There’s much to admire but feels every so slightly out of kilter. With water: evolves a slightly unexpected spicy edge with some chilli-infused dark chocolate, smoked paprika and also new leather shoes, boot polish and some pretty hefty herbal bitters. Like concentrated Fernet Branca! Finish: long, beefy, tarry, bitterly herbal and with rather a drying note of tannic black tea. Comments: It seems to be one of these early 1990s examples where the distillate was clean and pure but somewhat devoid of fruit, which is what you feel is missing here. There’s much to enjoy, but I think the cask and the distillate haven’t gotten on too well and there’s an overarching bitterness which doesn’t sit too easily within the whole.
SGP: 465 - 86 points.

FIona MacLeod 33 yo (46.3%, The Character Of Islay Whisky Company, bottled 2020)
A newish release from the team at Atom. I’m not sure who Fiona MacLeod is, but having had a sneaky sniff at the sample bottle, I’d bet my bottom groat that she used to work night shifts in France… Colour: light gold. Nose: indeed! Dried out perfume bottles, pot pourri, lavender and a bashed up, powdery packet of Parma violets from your pocket. There’s also the seashore, some sandalwood and touches of lemon peel. Pretty classical 80s Bowmore style, but I wouldn’t say it’s too extreme or hyper soapy. Mouth: perhaps a tad more difficult here. New handbag, imperial leather soap, some unusual sourdough bread notes, lamp oil, something like sour pollen, ink, assorted weird stuff. Becomes kind of indefinable except to say: 80s Bowmore innit! There’s a kind of slightly jagged sooty smoky vibe going on as well, it fades in and out between these lighter coastal oddities. Getting probably ‘too’ soapy now - lavender hand soap. Finish: this is a little more pleasant, it’s on some kind of sage sausage grilling over charcoals. More dried flowers and violets. Comments: I think your feelings about this whisky will boil entirely down to whether you like 80s Bowmore or not. This has reminded me that I haven’t had one for a very long time, so I’m pleased to become re-acquainted with the style and be reminded that I do not like it very much. Although, I will say that while this is weirdly soapy, it isn’t a totally dreadful type of soap (think 70s Edradour) it’s rather a fragrant and gently scary style. Make of that what you will.
SGP: 554 - 75 points.

Bowmore 22 yo 1976/1994 (52.2%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #3.27, 280 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: one of those wayward wilderness years Bowmores. A funny mix of lactic, farmyard, confectionary sweetness and a syrupy fruit salad juiciness underneath. Unusual but very enjoyable. In time there’s more classical notes of fragrant sandalwood, crushed seashells and even things like waxes and gentle ointments. With water: more leathery, salty, lightly farmy and earthy. A profile that’s more in synch with other 76 Bowmores I tried. Still a rather jellied fruitiness though, some pineapple emerging. Mouth: there’s an almost Clynelish-ey vibe to this with these nice mixes of polished leather, waxes, saline coastal notes and hessian. I also get citronella wax, putty, beach pebbles, old herbal medicines and white pepper. I’m not totally sure I’d peg it as Bowmore if tased blind. Still, very good nonetheless. With water: some sandalwood, chalky medicines, mint tea and a wee kiss of 1980s violets coming through. Finish: good length, rather drying and all on hessian, beach sand, minerals, chalk dust, citrus pith and some cereal notes. Comments: Some 1976 Bowmores face backwards, others face in the direction of the 1980s, while this one seems to take a long term view and feels more 90s in style. A very funny oddball of a Bowmore but plenty to enjoy.
SGP: 464 - 86 points.

Bowmore 12 yo (43%, OB, miniature, 1980s)
A wee mini I’ve had knocking about my cupboard for some years now; this seems like as good an occasion as any to crack it… Colour: amber - which is much darker than expected. Nose: this is the first time I’ve ever found a sherried batch of one of these old OB 12 year old. This is all on gently smoked game meats, venison salami, salty ramen broths, damp pipe tobacco, mushroom powder and mulchy earthen floored cellars. There’s botritic raisins and gentle rancio too. Keeps opening up and developing along rather earthy and tertiary lines. The fruits are there but they remain dark, exotic and strictly stewed and crystalised. Hugely impressive so far I have to say. Mouth: many salty game meats, pistachios, chocolate sauce, strawberry wine and treacle. Bitter chocolate studded with smoked sea salt and some natural tar. Trouble is, there is also some soapiness too. However, it feels like a bottle flaw rather than a distillate flaw; this is old school Bowmore for sure. Full of meat broths and herbal medicines now too. Finish: long, very gently smokey, lots of soft dark fruits, earthy black teas and more of these elegant meaty tones. Comments: This is a bit of a let down, the wee soapy incursion on the palate was unfortunate. But I suspect other examples of these minis may sing a different song. You can certainly feel how great the whisky originally was, the nose on its own was easily 92 point territory. Although, one thing I have noticed recently, is that more and more old bottles are beginning to develop soapy issues where you wouldn’t expect them. Is this something other people have noticed too? Or perhaps my palate is doomed to soap sensitivity. It’s annoying because I never found a sherried batch of this 12yo before and this is 100% circa 1970 distillate Bowmore.
SGP: 664 - 84 (ish) points (but another mini of the same could easily be 92/93)

Bowmore 32 yo 1968/2000 (45.5%, OB, 1860 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: a gentle one, initially all on crushed seashells, ink, embrocations, sea air and much lighter, more ethereal exotic fruit notes. A rather gloopy fructose impression, then more pointed notes of kiwi, mango jam, guava and lemon cough drops. Some grapefruit pith and nice wee streak of saltiness. Elegance and class are the watchwords here. Mouth: something like peat smoked sandalwood, herbal infused waxes, tangerine peel, dried out exotic fruits, olive oil and natural tar. Some smoke passion fruit, rapeseed oil and fir liqueur. Getting fatter, oilier, more emphatically medical and with a rather resinous fruitiness. Finish: long, camphory, nicely bitter, full of citrus, wee touches of melon, tar, ointments and more coastal touches. Comments: Bish bash bosh! Beautiful old 60s Bowmore, even if it’s a rather shy example that wears its fruits lightly.
SGP: 655 - 91 points. 

Bowmore 1956 (43%, OB for Italy, Soffiantino import, sherry, 1980s)
A legendary bottle. Colour: deep gold / amber. Nose: Yes! Really the epitome of Bowmore at its greatest. You have fruit that is primarily exotic and tropical in character but it is presented as this quivering, gelatinous mass around which orbits leathery, salty sherry, coastal subtleties, the most beguilingly fragrant peat smoke and various ancient and tertiary medicines. There’s herbs, seawater, petrichor, umami, waxes, camphor, salted liquorice, natural tar. Everything is just so powerful, vivid and assertive. And yet… also perfectly harmonised too. Nothing out of step or balance, everything keeping perfect time and pace. Whiskies like this present you with a conundrum: that time and base ingredients can create something so utterly beautiful it can drive you mad trying to figure out where the reach of the human hand ends and where nature takes over. Mouth: (oh yes, I suppose we should actually taste some of it at some point) as thick and resinous and unctuous and fat as whisky can be at 43%. A dazzling collision of peat, smoke, herbs, fruits, salt, waxes, medicine and seashore. I also find a gentle but totally luxurious sweetness underpinning everything as well. Ok, enough, call the anti-maltoporn brigade and let’s get out of here quick. Finish: endless, meandering, thick - that word gelatinous comes to mind again - tarry, oily and just utterly, spellbindingly fruity. Comments: A benchmark for this distillery, and undeniably for Scotch Whisky as a whole too. The most painful thing about the rarity and expense of whiskies like this one, is that they cannot be more widely tasted, appreciated, studied and understood. Especially in this contemporary era where the sharing of that knowledge would have such profound value.
SGP: 766 - 95 points.