What is the point of tasting a celebratory bottling after three years? We don’t know, but after all this is our home, let’s drink what we want, right? Last night we were in the mood for a Bowmore, and in our cabinet we found a sample of this bottling released for the Feis Ile of 2014, bottled at cask strength after an unspecified maturation time (it’s a NAS) in ex-bourbon barrels. There were two celebratory bottling, but we only have this one, don’t complain.
N: let’s start with the most typical Bowmore traits we can identify: there is an excellent marinity, substantiated by notes of salt and seaweed; then you can smell the maturation: the ex-bourbon barrels give a contribution of vanilla, custard, cake dough. There is, however, a new dimension, strange, that reminds us of beeswax, sesame (or sesame oil?) and a vegetable that we would define as ‘asparagus’; actually it is the grain of barley, still lively in the glass. There may also be a touch of ginger and lemon peel… Ah, we forgot about the peat, which is there, and wow!, even a pinch above the average of Bowmore style: but it’s a young whisky, it makes sense…
P: the attack is quite salty and marine, revealing a certain intensity, thanks also to the abv; then the barrel literally explodes, with notes of vanilla, creme caramel, coconut, very intense and ripe yellow fruit… Peat remains on the sidelines, returning only at the end, towards…
F: …the finale, quite peaty and smoky; then comes back the vanilla, which lasts very long.
82/100 – helped by the cask strength supporting a good intensity. Otherwise, it’s a whisky without praise or blame. A modern, clean, young Bowmore, with a nose that reveals interesting composite cereal notes, although we might not be willing to kill anyone to take home one of the 1000 bottles.
Recommended soundtrack: Miley Cyrus – Malibu. It was better when she was swinging naked on a concrete ball, now she caresses a dog, like everyone else.
