Bowmore Cask Strength Glass Printed Label

 

 

 

56°

Distillery : Bowmore - Islay

Ex-Bourbon and Oloroso Sherry Casks

Original Bottling 

Core Range 

Single Malt 

Launched in the early 1990s

Unchillfiltered, Cask Strength

Peated around 25 ppm

 

 

 

Another fine piece of history we have here. Bowmore's first Cask Strength bottlings appeared in the early 1990s. I know they were around in 1995, and I presume it was around before that as well. I assume it's Cask Strength, even though it's still the same exact alcohol content, they must have combined the casks so that it makes exactly 56°, like Glenfarclas 105. It's probably non-chill filtered too, as their regular range was. On the other hand, there must surely have been colouring. According to a website I found, it was aged in Bourbon and Oloroso Sherry Casks. The 1990s was the period when Bowmore was still affected by French Whore Perfume, so you have to be careful. Some bottles are completely destroyed by this bad smell of violet perfume, certainly those dating from the first half of the 1990s. Others are saved from this disaster, and the one I tasted had escaped it.

 

 

 

Let's Taste It : 

Mellow vanilla, nougatine, light smoky and medicinal notes, fine powdery peat, and on top a delight of exotic fruits, papaya, pineapple, prickly pear, candied banana, orange slices, sweet potatoes, ripe lemon. A hint of iodine in the background, fresh limestone, sea spray, guano, green seaweed. On the palate, it's both powerful and delicate, almond milk, whitewashed peat, very discreet floral touches, soft vanilla cake, salted butter caramel, hot fudge, discreet spices. The long and powerful finish returns to the costal character, sea foam, saline touches, puffed rice, almond paste, vanilla blossom, Turkish delight.

 

In Short, 

I think the bottle I tasted 1cl of dates from the very early 2000s, the FWP problem was solved in 1994, and a few years later the whisky from Bowmore is excellent again. The exotic fruits are intense, and the smoke is incredible, powdery and subtle as diamonds. It's superb, but that's the problem. You have to avoid the bad bottles full of violet disinfectant, and stumbling across the good ones is a lottery. These bottles are very old and extremely expensive. So I'm not sure I'd recommend buying them, especially if there's a 50/50 chance you'll come across something that's no good. The life of a whisky fan is really complicated sometimes.

Score : 90

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                           To Be Listened While Sipping :

 

                                           Cosmic Garden Project - Olympus Mons