The 20th Anniversary Sessions, today Bowmore


August 2, 2022

The 20th Anniversary Sessions,
today Bowmore

After the utterly flabbergasting Largiemeanoch on WF's birthday, let's have some other Bowmores, as it is a distillate that we like really a lot (except for most 1980s vintages and some of the late 1970s). Provided no heady, cloying and frankly stuffy wood treatments has ever been inflicted.
(photograph, Islay weather, 2007, WF Archive)

Bowmore 'Tiger's Choice' (59.9%, Clan Denny for Or Sileis, Taiwan, barrel, cask #DL14130, 239 bottles, 2020)

No age and no vintage that I can find here, which doesn't make it easy to insert into a verticale, but it's 'most probably very young', as are all NAS in our book. So, let's have this one as #1. Clan Denny is a Douglas Laing sub-brand. Colour: pale white wine. Nose: you do feel the youth (mercurochrome, medicinal alcohol), you do feel Bowmore's tropical fruitiness too. Plus a very coastal, very salty smokiness. The strength is a little high. With water: fruit syrups and rather a little 'sweet' varnish. It really needs quite some water to get to the coastal phenols. Mouth (neat): syrupy, massive, eau-de-vie-ish, a little brutal when neat. Some pears (youth indeed) and ultra-ripe papayas. With water: there, some salted and smoked fish, anchovies, sardines, rollmops… How very Bowmore, but you need to fight your way to these parts. Lovely brine, some limoncello. Finish: rather long, young, sweet. The aftertaste is awesome now, clean, fat, Bowmoreish. Comments: not too sure how old this is, but a few more years would have helped, I would say. But the drop is first-class.
SGP:636 (unusual profile, big treble and bass, few mediums) - 85 points.

Bowmore 19 yo 2002/2021 (50.4%, Cadenhead, Authentic Collection, bourbon hogshead, 180 bottles)

Oh well, all siblings and compadres have been nothing short of stunning in my book, so this note is probably a little superfluous. Colour: straw. Nose: geranium, new rubber (tyres), tomato leaves, seaweed, lime juice, seawater, oysters and, once more, limoncello. Balance is perfect. With water: fresh mint and pink grapefruits taking off. Splendid Bowmoreness. Mouth (neat): fat, smoky, lemony, salty, coastal, chiselled and pretty hi-precision. I believe it's time we mention whelks, our friends. One day I'll tell you about that day, forty years ago, when I first bought some whelks while not knowing that you had to cook them. An utter disaster, it was. With water: a little sweet, almost syrupy, but otherwise everything works in sync, citrus, brine, fish, smoke… Finish: lovely, just a wee tad sweetish, or it would have reached the 90-mark in my book. Comments: splendid and, most of all, extremely idiosyncratic (yeah right). You can't get enough of that.
SGP:656 - 89 points.

On to the 2001s…

Bowmore 16 yo 2001/2017 (54.8%, Cadenhead, Whisky Shop Baden)

So very predictable! Let's do this quick… Colour: white wine. But naturally. Nose: chalk, beach sand, smoked fish, oysters, tarmac, seaweed… But naturally. With water: new rubber bands, whelks, winkles, new engine oil, olive brine. Of course. Mouth (neat): tar, salt, lemon juice, seawater, mezcal, green olives, lime twist. But naturally. With water: emphasis on salty tar and lemon zests. Obviously. Finish: stunning sharpness but with once more a wee syrupy sweetness. Brine in the aftertaste. Comments: extraordinary purity. Was this quick enough? But naturally… What's dead sure is that we needed these batches of Bowmore within our celebratory tasting sessions. And there's more.
SGP:556 - 90 points.

Bowmore 18 yo 2001/2020 (50.8%, The Character of Islay, The Stories of Wind & Wave, refill bourbon barrel, cask #11715)

This is what we call deflated packaging. Or swimming against the flow (as most fish do anyway, according to experts, but there). Colour: straw. Nose: a bit more on the dry-white side, with more sourness, less sweet roundness, and yet a few drops of coconut wine and perhaps even pina colada. No problems, senor general! With water: ooh old clothes in an old wardrobe in an old attic in an old house in an old to… (that'll do, S.) Mouth (neat): just incredible. Totally bright, lifted, ethereal, salty, lemony, and this time with many complex side tones, flowers, wee berries, tiny herbs… But-what-a-whisky! With water: whaah! I can't see what I would change in this wee Bowmore, apart from the number of centilitres in the bottle. Amazing bottle. Finish: in keeping, perhaps a notch saltier. Comments: once again the purity here wins it. To think that some would dump this into PX or Port.
SGP:656 - 91 points.

Quicker please…

Bowmore 18 yo 2001/2020 (55.4%, The Character of Islay, The Stories of Wind & Wave, refill bourbon barrel, cask #11714)

Colour: white wine. Nose: close of course, but different, a tad more on grasses, rawer peat smoke, as if this barrel had been less active. No pina colada this time. With water: more damp earth this time, dunnage… Splendid. Mouth (neat): terrifically coastal and mentholy. I don't think I've ever had a plate of oysters with some fresh mint, and not sure anyone would try that, but that's what I'm getting. The whisky is dazzlingly impressive. With water: masterpiece. Finish: sadly. Comments: I think I like this kind of purity even more, but that's not enough to warrant one more point. Mind you, at this kind of altitude, further points are getting extremely expensive, as our bankers in the Caiman Islands very well know..
SGP:556 - 91 points.

It's time to try to retrieve much older vintages, no?

Bowmore 30 yo 1972 (53.2%, Kingsbury, Japan, hogshead, cask #927, 209 bottles, +/-2002)

Nicknamed 'the Celtic label', well not sure about what was Celtic, but these Bowmores by Kingsbury / Eaglesome / Cadenhead have always been of very high extraction (taking about lineage, not about wood). Get prepared… Colour: full gold. Nose: these are very moving vintages, because after the very buoyant 1960s, the 1970s just couldn't do it any better. Impossible! And yet, and despite a tiny wee soapiness that was starting to appear here and there, many have been fantastic. This is no exception, with these notes of blueberry tarte and puréed chestnuts, blood oranges (big time, wow!), a curious winey side (checked the actual cask)… With water: ho-ho, Maggi, lovage, miso, vegetal umami, walnuts… And yet it was a hogshead. Mouth (neat): sweets, bonbons, marshmallows, toffee apples… The new style of Bowmore was already there. When did our Japanese friends buy Bowmore again? Right, only in the early 1990s, but these batches were already clearly different. I mean, from those of the 1960s and very early 1970s. With water: back to the insane tropicalness of the 1960s. Mangos, pink grapefruits and maracuja all over the place. Finish: medium, very fruity, rather on wine gums, with a very , very soft smokiness. Comments: nothing was obvious in this one. It's extraordinary whisky and, 'in theory', should have fetched an extraordinarily high score. The thing is, those b****y 2001s have kind of blocked it.
SGP:653 - 90 points.

Bowmore 14 yo 1971 (57.7%, Sestante, +/-1985)

Right, I did try this one (from another bottle, obviously) back in 2012 and many friends whom I trust have been gently complaining about the fact that my score had been really low given the pedigree (WF 77). Fine, we're not stubborn, let's just give it another try, ten years later. Honestly, I don't remember much about the first time I tried this Bowie, all I've got is my old tasting note. So, with an open mind and a willing heart, let's try this baby again. Colour: reddish amber. Nose: all right, all right. Quince jelly, vegetal earth, blood oranges, overripe mangos… A real feeling of super-top-end sangria, in fact. Well well well… With water: mint, liquorice, fruity earth (compost) and fruity yeasts. Mouth (neat): wow. I would suppose the one I tried in 2012 had been wrecked, even if I'm not quite an integral fan of these reddish fruits that are roaming this palate. German strawberry wine, okkkay… With water: it's a sweet fruit bomb, with tiny herbs, tobaccos and dried fruits (prunes!) playing around. At times you're thinking of old Ténarèze. Finish: rather long, rich and yet balanced, with rather blood oranges at the helm. Comments: what's totally sure is that back in 2012, on that day, I was either in a very bad mood, or the whisky I had had been having much trouble. Not too sure, it's to be remembered that back then, many of us were having a rather poor opinion on Bowmore, generally speaking. We were expecting total wreckage, to be honest, as the 1980s had been so horrendously nasty. Now I'd rather go for either a wrecked bottle, or a wrecked sample, as that one had virtually no fruits at all. So, as only fools never change their mind…
SGP:644 - 90 points.

PS: not sure I've ever seen an OB sporting the wording 'The Bowmore', have you? Goody good, let' have a newer one just to lift our spirits, before we call this a tasing session.

Bowmore 16 yo 1998 (Scotch Malt Whisky Society, refill barrel, #3.236, 'Heathery smoke drifting by the shore', 141 bottles, +/-2015)

I agree, not that new, but we've got a good feeling here. Colour: light gold. Nose: yes, these slightly animal touches, these whiffs of farmyard, dog, then paint and putty, lobster, linseed oil, sesame and raisins… A different game altogether, much farmier. With water: burning manure, garden bonfire, orange squash. Mouth (neat): super good, full of candied fruits, as in some proper cassata ice cream. Behind that, Asian wines and drinks, umeshu and all that. Prune wine. Love it. Please note that I'm totally aware of the fact that writing 'Asian' is terribly myopic and that we know very well that every country and even every region or even tiny town has got its own stunning delicacies. End of shameful PC statement. With water: excellent, just a tad fattish and sweetish here and there. Syrupy, as we sometimes write. Finish: long, saltier, so excellent. Comments: I can see why that 'heathery smoke', well spotted dear SMWS!
SGP:656 - 88 points.

(Thanks as ever, Angus, Lukas and KC!)

Check the index of all Bowmore we've tasted so far