Bowmore 17 yo 2003/2021 (54.9%, Elixir Distillers 'The Single Malts of Scotland', cask #93, barrel, 172 bottles)
I'm very late. Colour: pale white wine. Nose: dry and chalky peat smoke with that familiar Bowmore 'fragrantness' which suggests softer coastal things like sandalwood, beach pebbles and coastal flowers. Then some lime and grapefruit notes start to announce more familiar Bowmore fruitiness. Typical and pretty excellent. With water: gets rather focussed on saltiness with seawater, brine and lemon juice on fresh oysters. Also more lime juice and white flowers. Mouth: a little more power and oomph on arrival than the nose suggested, lovely mix of seawater, cornichon brine, a slightly acrylic smokiness and then things like fabrics, hessian, natural tar and smoked olive oil. Again, very excellent, chiselled and dry. I can't help but think of the old neck labels for some very old Sherriff's Bowmore bottlings that used to borrow the language of white wines and deployed descriptors like 'bone dry' and 'mineral' - more innocent times. With water: dry, smoky, salty and giving off some serious Margherita vibes with these wee impressions of celery salt and agave distillate. A few glimmers of citrus rinds and more chalky pebbles and mineral notes. Finish: good length, going back towards those softer peat smoke notes we initially found on the nose and also more dried seaweed and lemon rind. Comments: excellent, if slightly uncompromising modern Bowmore.
SGP: 466 - 88 points. 

Bowmore 17 yo 2003/2021 (57.8%, Elixir Distillers 'The Single Malts of Scotland', cask #81, barrel, 209 bottles)
Colour: pale white wine again. Nose: leaner and greener! I get a little more gassy 'roughness' that incorporates some vegetal smokiness, ashy peat smoke, beach pebbles and sandalwood once again. Possibly even more austere and 'brittle' than #93. With water: hints of dried sage, anchovy sauce, rice wine and even a single artichoke in smoked olive oil. Mouth: hugely salty and coastal, full of seawater, dirty martini, gherkin juice, muddled citrus juices, touches of aniseed and even a little petrol. A blade, as Serge might say. With water: preserved lemons, distant kippers (what?) and various suggestions of miso, soy sauce and pickled ginger. Sushi whisky I would suggest. Finish: long, very salty, pin sharp smokiness and tiny notes of grapefruit amongst a lot of raw seawater and minerals. Comments: even more austere than its sibling, the very height of sophisticated un-sexiness. That being said, I preferred the ever so slightly clearer fruitiness of #93.
SGP: 366 - 87 points.

Bowmore 19 yo 2002/2021 (50.4%, Cadenhead 'Authentic Collection', bourbon hogshead, 180 bottles)
Colour: white wine. Nose: again this beautiful sense of softness that I often find in these vintages of Bowmore. Sandalwood, silky peat smoke, driftwood, dried seaweed, tiny herbal notes and aromas of smoked teas and subtle dried exotic fruits. With water: impeccably dry and salty, with salted fish, sardines in olive oil and rock pool vibes! Mouth: again a slightly sharper, drier and more coastal and mineral profile. Dried seaweed, sandalwood, salted liquorice and aniseed once again. Also a few things like shellfish and dried tarragon. With water: full of seawater, some grapefruit, a little tart rhubarb and cut green apple acidity, then pickling juice vibes and green olive. Finish: good length, with a little deep peat smoke, tiger balm and gentian eau de vie. Very long, salty aftertaste. Comments: I love this absolutely classy and bone dry profile, it's just that I tend to end up craving a little more fruit. I like my Bowmore fruity!
SGP: 456 - 88 points.

Bowmore 17 yo 2002/2020 (54.9%, The Character of Islay Whisky Company 'The Stories of Wind and Wave')
An exclusive bottling for LMDW I believe. Colour: white wine. Nose: same feeling that we have a rather unimpeachable, dry and mineral profile Bowmore, that also starts with some very aromatic and enchanting wispy peat smoke, coastal aromas, smoked teas such as lapsing souchong and even Earl Grey, and also the usual lime and grapefruit notes. With water: lovely, developing in some interesting directions like lanolin, squid ink, bandages and charred limes. Mouth: wonderful arrival, that also manages to include a little more overt fruitiness and tartness, things like gooseberry, crushed nettle, a touch of dried mango and papaya and then smoked olive oil and mineral oil which adds to the send of texture wonderfully. There's also a rather creamy but still nicely drying smokiness in the background. With water: superb! Creamy, oily and with a more pronounced and peppery peat smoke flavour, but also kippers, brine, anchovy paste and Maggi! Even a few herbal cocktail bitters and pithy grapefruit peel. Terrific breadth and complexity! Finish: long, herbal, peaty, coastal and with a great sense of fruitiness and maturity while still retaining this salty, drying edge into the aftertaste. Comments: tip top! Everything works in harmony here and 'we have the fruit'!
SGP: 555 - 91 points.

Bowmore 16 yo 2001/2017 (54.8%, Cadenhead '175th Anniversary' for Whisky Shop Baden, hogshead, 294 bottles)
Colour: pale white wine. Nose: we're back to another of these lean and sharp ones that is immediately very coastal and fresh. Freshly laundered linens, crisp wood smoke, sandalwood and crushed seashells. Also a tiny bit ashy and rather mineral. Same dry and precise profile as some of those 2003s. With water: still very salty, with impressions of beach sand and dried seaweed. Also perhaps a little umami ramen broth and tart rhubarb. Mouth: rather on soft peat smoke, caraway, aniseed and salted liquorice. Also seawater, ashes, brine, lemon juice and boiled shellfish. With water: green acidity, more salted liquorice, soy sauce and preserved lemon in brine. Finish: quite long, very salty, precise, sharp and coastal. Comments: excellent, highly precise distillate, but again I'm left wanting a few fruits to balance this side out.
SGP: 356 - 88 points.

Bowmore 18 yo 2001/2020 (50.8%, The Character of Islay Whisky Company 'The Stories of Wind & Wave', refill bourbon barrel, cask #11715)
Colour: very pale straw. Nose: a more exuberant and exotic style straight away! Tropical fruit teas, dried mango, papaya, a much more laid back and ethereal smokiness with a very gentle thread of peat running throughout. Also touches of eucalyptus and tea tree oil. With water: pina colada galore. With a few additions such as hessian and jasmine tea. Mouth: really, superbly fruity! Mango, passion fruits, papaya and guava - the usual suspects! Also a terrifically 'full' and creamy texture in the mouth. Captured at a perfect age I would say, there's a touch of coconut from the wood, but it melds perfectly with this overarching tropical/creamy profile. With water: the same, but adds a slight tension of coastal and salty freshness that is really quite compelling. Finish: there, passion fruits and mango galore! Also long and alighting on being rather salty and stunningly fresh. Comments: once again we are left to scratch our heads and puzzle as to why the owners are not regularly releasing such juice. A dazzling wee gem of a Bowmore.
SGP: 655 - 91 points.

Bowmore 18 yo 2001/2020 (55.4%, The Character of Islay Whisky Company 'The Stories of Wind & Wave', refill bourbon barrel, cask #11714)
Colour: pale straw. Nose: a little gentler than its sibling, softer, more coastal, gently peaty with this familiar wispy and ethereal peat smoke note. Beach pebbles, dried seaweed, Maggi and in time more of these tea tree oil and exotic fruit tea combinations that are really charming. With water: same hypnotic and brilliant development, only this time it goes more towards fruits to arrive at roughly the same profile as its sibling. Mouth: more power, more saltiness and more brittle, drying smokiness, but there's still this tropical fruit abundance as in the sibling cask. Smoked cereals, dried pineapple, papaya and mango once again. More smoked teas, more dried herbs and more of these salt-baked fish notes. With water: brilliant! Mentholic, mineral, fruity and even waxy and oily in texture now. Perfectly mature and gushing with distillery character and purity. Finish: long and brilliantly fruity, salty and bright! Comments: a notch drier overall perhaps, but this is still the same ballpark in terms of overall quality.
SGP: 566 - 91 points. 

Bowmore 21 yo 2001/2022 (51.6%, Douglas Laing 'XOP' for The Whisky Exchange, #DL16464, refill sherry butt, 514 bottles)
Colour: coffee / amber. Nose: quite the gear shift! Very much on herbal bitters, salted dark chocolate, aged orange muscat and rather a lot of this familiar gamey and leathery sherry note. The saltiness of the sherry and the Bowmore go well, even though the whole feels a little tense and nervous. Opens up with a nice umami and herbal profile which keeps developing positively. With water: very nicely on camphor, tar and herbal tonic wines now, feels globally more cohesive with water. Mouth: very salty and umami focussed, lots of game meats, tobaccos, preserved black cherries in kirsch, tar extracts, wormwood and various smoked dark beers. A heavy profile that may prove slightly divisive. With water: gets superbly tarry and camphory once again, drilling into all this leathery, peppery, gamey, umami and salty sherry goodness! Finish: rather long, on earthy dark teas, smoked plums (do they actually exist?), more tar extracts and herbal bitters. Lovely thick peaty flavour in the aftertaste. Comments: I wasn't too sure at the start, but it won me round in the end. I think it gains a lot with a few drops of water.
SGP: 576 - 89 points.

Bowmore 16 yo 1998 (59.9%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society 3.236 'Heathery smoke drifting by the shore', refill barrel, 141 bottles)
One of the more feasible sounding SMWS names perhaps? Colour: straw. Nose: it is possibly the power of suggestion, but I do detect heathery smoke drifting by a shoreline. Also more cut green apple and sharp gooseberry, limes and grapefruit, along with the wonderfully familiar soft, wispy peat smoke that seems to characterise these vintages. Then more coastal things like crab sticks and wet beach pebbles. Lovely nose! With water: geraniums! Also wood ashes, bandages, kelp and one additional gooseberry. Mouth: rather powerful arrival, dry, ashy peat smoke paired with black pepper, kippers, lemon juice and tiny hints of passion fruit and mango. There's also a lovely, taut mineral side as well. With water: settles excellently now, a touch of salted honey that bring some sweetness, smoked olive oil and exotic fruit teas. Finish: long, drying, salty, with a deeper smokiness and more black pepper and camphor notes. Comments: from an excellent parcel of casks that the Society seems now sadly to be out of. Although, I had 3.290 even higher on WF91!
SGP: 566 - 89 points.

Bowmore 23 yo 1997 (43.7%, Club Qing 'Fairy Tale Series', sherry butt, 189 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: very gentle, leafy and exotic. There's sherry but it's elegantly shy and quite subtle, it makes obliging space for quite a lot of classical soft Bowmore peat smoke and assorted exotic fruit vibes. Also waxy lemon rinds, dried mango and herbal teas. Soft and gentle but highly charming and still with some nicely clear distillery character. Mouth: extremely easy with a soft layer of peat smoke alongside salty, slightly earthy and gentle, dry sherry. Subtle tobacco leaf, dried mango once again, overall a clearer exotic fruit flavour I'd say, and hints of quince and mirabelle. Nice tension between the fruits and the saltier, sherry notes. Finish: medium and nicely on dried exotic fruit chunks, delicate saltiness and background peat smoke. Comments: effortless Bowmore that you could probably assimilate a litre of without noticing. I'm sure I shouldn't be writing or suggesting such things, but there you go. Simple and gentle, but highly pleasurable.
SGP: 644 - 88 points.

Bowmore 29 yo 1992/2021 (44.5%, Claxton's, bourbon hogshead)
Colour: white wine. Nose: shut the fridge door! Smashed kiwis, lime blossom, overripe mango, passion flower, dried herbs and distant trails of peat smoke. Also a stunning fragile coastal element that makes you think of rock pools, seashells, pebbles and the like. I adore this fragility combined with fruity abundance. It doesn't make sense, and yet, it exists - like Donald T. Developing some further notes of orange peel and cut grass. Mouth: beautiful fruitiness again, with a nice tartness too and more of these fragile coastal aspects. Feels ever so slightly underpowered, but it's really being nit picky. More of these sharp green and exotic fruit notes with more kiwi, some gooseberry and star fruit. Another hyper easy, naturally low ABV Bowmore that you could easily mistake for diluting juice. Finish: medium, full of more sharp, tart and tropical fruitiness, some grape must, delicate notes of bandages and tiny medical tinctures. Comments: Outrageously quaffable and pleasurable, only this slight tendency towards fragility will prevent it hitting the 90 hurdle, but it's really a technicality thing. Love this fruit juice.
SGP: 644 - 89 points.

Bowmore 18 yo 1993 (61.6%, The Whisky Exchange 'Masterpieces', refill hogshead, 195 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: sandalwood, ashes, beach pebbles and this sense of rising exotic fruitiness that slowly but surely starts to involve pink grapefruit, passionfruit and papaya. Tiny green aspects such as grassiness, crushed nettles and gooseberry in the background too. Lemony and flinty peat smoke inflections. With water: becomes almost mechanical with bigger and more emphatic oily qualities, toolbox rags, hessian, smoked olive oil and fir wood resins. Still a pin-sharp, pristine coastal freshness over everything. Mouth: superb power, the full force of this cask strength but you do not 'feel' the alcohol in that sense, rather just a wonderful wall of flavour. Oily, textural peat impressions, with tars, embrocations, bandages, tinctures of iodine and mineral salts. Then tangerine, blood orange, crystallised citrus peels and hints of exotic fruit teas and dried mango. With water: outstanding! Perfectly lemony, tropical, smoky and salty. Brilliant, potent and perfectly tense Bowmore! Finish: long, sharply salty, citric and with beautiful subtle peat smoke and medicine notes along with a background of exotic fruits. Comments: no quibbles here, a brilliant Bowmore that remains deserving of its already lofty reputation.
SGP: 656 - 91 points.

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Delamain & Co 1875 Grande Champagne Cognac (40%, OB, -/+1960s)
From the cellars of Château Wwhiskyfun. Probably in demijohn for many years prior to bottling . Colour: coppery bronze. Nose: very leafy and mulchy, old dark earthiness and rancio. Many tobaccos, plums soaked in Armagnac, hardwood resins, cough syrups and mothballs. Very antique and definitely 'old school' Cognac - which is to say darker, heavier, earthier and more deeply rustic, very much the pre-Phylloxera profile. In time it becomes more leathery and more outrightly herbal, a few impressions of dried out make up and face creams too, you might also say very strong 'antique dresser' vibes.

Grande Fine Champagne Cognac 1850 (No ABV, Skinner Rook & Chambers, bottled circa 1950)
A bottle I bought at auction some years ago and seemed a fitting occasion to open. The label states re-corked 1979. And it would appear Skinner Rook were bottlers… of beer! Or at least that seems to have been what their main business was, not at all surprising that such a company might have had their own Cognac bottling in the mid-20th century, but maybe a little surprising that it would have been an 1850 Grande Champagne cognac. Colour: deep orangey gold. Nose: stunning and incredible freshness and exuberant fruitiness! Amazing tinned peaches, lychee, also rancio but enveloped by honeys, fruit teas, very gentle wee waxy notes, brings to mind similarly ancient Glen Grants! You can also add some beautiful and rather expensive bitter orange marmalade, very old Sauternes and sweet Chenin blanc. Just terrific and so alive, we are wondering if there's any sugar been added to this one at all? Either way, a totally beautiful nose!

Longmorn 1897/1905 (58.4%, cask sample. Drawn 13/10/1905)
A cask sample that was purchased privately as part of a small bundle of such old samples, from an old lad who had worked in the industry and kept them as mementos. It was among a few other cask samples and old miniatures, most of which were out of condition. This one, however, was over three quarters full and had a small, but very well intact, and clearly very old driven cork, which helps to explain its excellent preservation. I got the ABV by using my Anton Parr electric hydrometer. There is a faint date noted in pencil on the lower part of the label, which makes sense as 'drawing' date. If it is indeed accurate, this should be pretty much the same age as the 1833 Blair Castle. I know, I know, so many assumptions at work, but we must struggle on… 

Blair Castle Whiskey 1833/1841 (61.3%. OB?, Believed distilled 1833 / believed bottled 1841, rebottled 1932) 
Colour: white wine (woo hoo!) Nose: extremely pure, salty and fresh - like a mash up of Mezcal and Gentian eau de vie. Then we are in a world of bone marrow, bouillon, umami and savoury soups, mineral oils, sheep wool and camphor. What's most striking is the familiarity of it all, this could be 1950s Clynelish, it is a profile that would be instantly familiar to any enthusiast of older style, distillate driven, Scottish malt whiskies. Continues with bandages, seawater and perhaps even mercurochrome and coal dust. Antiseptic with brittle waxes, dried out old medicines and ointments and things like pure hessian, mutton broth and hay loft. Extremely powerful and almost even austere, amazing that it would have retained this very 'refill wood' profile - petrol from before petrol existed. There's also, underneath anything, some raw, clean and plain barley, a whisky that's very close to the raw ingredients. With water: sea salt, dried flowers, crushed barley, even fresh grist! You could add some dried herbs, some rather brittle, taut waxes, pine resin, pine cones and then more grassy and rather peppery olive oil. Also more of these big, thick and rather direct camphor and ointment notes. The piney notes keep developing, pine needles, resins and cones etc, also petrichor, goes more and more towards the rainy forest, while also keeping one foot firmly on the coast. Finally, the nose is also absent any aspects which would suggest 'old bottle effect' in a negative way, perhaps an indication it might have been stored in larger containers for a significant stretch of its existence? 

Unknown believed 19th century Irish Whiskey (Circa 55%)  
From a stash of bottles discovered in an old outbuilding in Ireland and brought to auction at Whisky Online back in 2020. Some chemical analysis was also apparently done on these and suggested a mixed grain whisky with malt base, pot distilled and aged in oak. Although, it seems likely that the many bottles of this which were discovered (over 100 apparently) were in wildly varying condition, so if you find another bottle this note could prove pretty useless I'm afraid. Colour: white wine. Nose: once again, obviously something ancient, however, here there is also something slightly more funky and acetic going on, an aroma that would point towards bacterial activity perhaps? With these impressions of lactic acid, cheese rind and then big fat notes of shoe polish, suet and marrow. It shares something of the Blair Castle's power and fatness, while also being definitely 'weirder'. A little camphor and petrolic character too. With water: really magnifying these acetic notes now, going into lemon yoghurt, goat cheese and white wine vinegar. Sounds unpleasant, but it's actually very funny and pretty fascinating. In time a little green herbal note and some dried mint appear.