Bowmore 1999 Hand Filled 20 yo

 

 

 

54,9°

Distillery : Bowmore - Islay 

1st Fill Pedro Ximénez Sherry Cask 

Original Bottling 

Limited Edition 

Single Cask 

Bottled in 2019

Unchillfiltered, Uncoloured, Cask Strength

Peated around 25 ppm

 

 

 

I've never visited the Bowmore distillery, but apparently when you do, you have the opportunity to buy these regularly released bottles from the Hand Filled series. They are, as the name suggests, hand-filled, the particulars of the juice are noted in pencil on a small notebook supplied with the bottle and the alcohol content is also written in pencil on the label! This one is said to be the 33rd Batch in the Hand Filled series, aged for 20 years and 6 months in a Pedro Ximénez Sherry first-fill cask, numbered 26, and reportedly sold out 2 days after going on sale, bearing in mind that this bottling can only be purchased from the distillery. I don't know how many bottles were produced, but there are at least 659.

 

 

 

Let's Taste It : 

Very intense and quite woody sherry. Blackcurrant and frangipane. Ribbed velvet, cherry jam, gooseberries and liquorice. Raspberry lollipop, chocolate and caramel, genoise, treacle. Coulis, pomegranate, a few herbaceous touches. It's silky on the palate, rosewater, satiny vanilla, red fruits but not overpowering, cloves and pepper, light rancio, fermented fruits. The finish is long and explosive, meandering between the woody and morello cherry flavours, chocolate filled with ganache, stretto coffee and cherries, red fruit mousse and very slight bitterness. Cola nut.

In Short, 

I haven't had such a good Bowmore for a long time. It's quite exceptional. The Sherry is very intense but perfectly proportioned, velvety, coated in a layer of caramel, pure candy and at the same time very deep, a beautiful variety of pulpy fruit. In a word, magnificent. Be careful, it's not a good swimmer, so it's best not to add water. It's hard to get hold of it these days, you can sometimes find it at auction, but you have to pay the price.

Score : 91

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                           To Be Listened While Sipping :

 

                                           Jacob Gurevitsch - Lovers in Paris