Just a couple of great Bowmores


January 9, 2024

Just a couple of great Bowmores

We tasted quite a few at the end of last year, but we still have some to finish. By that, we only mean tasting in the most subtle and attentive way possible. Who doubts it? Let's be honest, we were looking for an excuse to taste a version of the Bicentenary for which we have not yet written any official tasting note. Official, if you can call it that.

Bowmore 26 yo 1997/2023 (49.5%, Cut The Leftovers Loose, refill hogshead)

A small bottling from one of Artful Dodger's sub or sister brands. A Highland Park we tried very recently was quite astonishing, if memory serves. Colour: straw. Nose: a rather medicinal Bowmore, with hints of mercurochrome, iodine tincture, and bandages at first, before gradually moving towards exotic fruits and menthol cigarettes. Mangoes and clementines take centre stage, with a touch of pine smoke as well. It all remains rather delicate. Mouth: the same pattern follows, ending up tasting rather like a multi-vitamin fruit juice seasoned with sea water and peat smoke. Hints of toothpaste, cough syrup, passion fruit, a few small oysters, some seaweed… Finish: medium-length but with a perfect profile. Pine sap, sea water, grapefruit, peat, green pepper, it's all there. Comments: this splendid, rather tender but complete old Bowmore should be perfect with sushi. Or oysters. Excellent.
SGP:654 - 90 points.

Another 1997, please...

Bowmore 22 yo 1997/2020 (52.6%, Old Master Q Series, HK Whisky, Hong Kong, refill sherry butt, 642 bottles)

Colour: white wine. Nose: a significant step up in intensity, almost brutal, despite the presence of only 3% more alcohol by volume. Gorgeous mineral oils, beach pebbles, a bit of turpentine, linseed oil, lemon, throat lozenges… Then tomato and fig leaves, very fresh almonds, fresh putty... It's very intriguing. With water: fresh paint and damp hay. Mouth (neat): very active citrus, with a hint of saltiness. Almost like biting into a grapefruit with the peel still on. A magnificent oily wrap-around. With water: perfect coastal salinity and exotic fruit peels. Cough lozenges and salted liquorice. Finish: longer this time, with smoked fish and still an oily aspect. Anise and liquorice at the very end, with a fun absinthe twist and even some mezcal. Comments: in 1997, we were already witnessing a return to the great Bowmore vintages, a revival that began in the early 1990s after the troubled 1980s for Bowmore, which reminded us of the infernal drum machines and vocoders in the pop music of that era. It's funny how some are nostalgic for that.
SGP:566 - 90 points.

Let's have a young Swiss before the Bicentenary...

Bowmore 9 yo 2013/2023 (58.3%, Douglas Laing, Single Minded for World of Whisky Waldhaus-am-See, refill barrel, cask #DL17879, 244 bottles)

We had already tasted a wonderful young Talisker featuring a portrait of the father, Claudio Bernasconi, now here's the son, Sandro, already very active both at the famous hotel in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and in its immense whisky bar. Colour: white wine. Nose: it's pure and precise, as expected. Sea water, seaweed, ink, smoked fish, lemon, green pepper, and a new jumper. With water: full on ink, daily newspapers, weekly magazines… Mouth (neat): lemon, mint, anise, pepper, smoke, olives, and Swiss white wine. Well, not necessarily Dôle blanche or even the famous Petite Arvine... And we'll skip the white Merlot, shall we. Oh by the way, we just tried some superb Sauvignon Buxus by Louis Bovard three days ago, highly recommended. In any case, this young Bowmore is perfect. With water: succulent, very medicinal this time. Finish: very long, saltier. If I wanted to provoke a bit, I'd talk about Grisons meat, but that would be pushing it. Comments: a very, very impressive young Bowmore. After 15 years in the bottle, it will have gained an extra point, and after 30 years at least three more points, you can feel it, so that's guaranteed on the invoice. I've recently tasted some +/-10 years-old distilled in the early 1990s, they had already progressed.
SGP:467 - 90 points.

PS: Over time, a great whisky can become very great, but alas a nag will never become a racehorse.

Bowmore 'Bicentenary' (43%, OB, multi-vintage version, SNPA Import France, 1979)

There were several versions of these Bowmores released to commemorate the distillery's bicentenary in 1979. Some came from a single vintage displayed on the neck label, specifically 1964, others showed no vintage, others listed the vintages involved in a small letter added in the wooden case, about ten of them ranging from 1950 to 1966. It's this last version that we're tasting today, a French rotation no less. Let's remember that they all came in replica bottles from the... Napoleonic era. I'll add that all these 'Bicentenary' Bowmores ranged from excellent to sublime. And they could still be easily found in French gourmet shops twenty years ago 'because they had always been very expensive'. We're talking about sums close to 80 French francs per bottle, imagine!

Colour: deep gold. Nose: less on fresh fruits than the vintage versions and more on canned fruits and jams, mainly exotic indeed. There's an aromatic blitzkrieg that doesn't give you time to put a word on a sensation before it's replaced by another. However, there is more smoke, iodine, even oysters and kelp than in the vintage versions, but the mango continues to hold centre stage. It's all masterful, with sensations that you almost want to keep to yourself. I'm joking. Mouth: tighter, almost a little austere, salty, probably a bit more evolved now, after nearly forty-five years in glass. Seawater, shellfish, a slightly acrid smoke, and even a bit of a rural touch. We're talking about the Islay countryside, of course. All complemented by malty and slightly meaty notes, chicken broth, a bit of chicory and toasted bread… It's a little less precise perhaps, and maybe that's also due to the multi-vintage aspect of this version which remains sumptuous. Finish: very slightly short, maritime, salty and malty. The exotic fruits make a strong comeback at the very end of the finish, mainly orange marmalade and, as a final point, the proverbial mango. Comment: what an adventure! It was the same each time I tasted these Bowmore Bicentenaries which, it seems to me, have simply never been exactly the same. Incredible.
SGP:564 - 92 points.

(Thank again, the Golden Promise, Lars and Whisky Magazine & Fine Spirits)

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