Happy Birthday my boy. Largiemeanoch (Bowmore) 1967 12 yo, The Howgate Wine Co. , #2655, 2656, 2657, 95 proof/54.2%
So quickly 1 turns to 2. Before I knew it your first year doubled to two but more than double has been the joy you brought to our lives this year. We watch with quiet amazement as your gurgles and mumbles grow into half words and nearly-guessed meanings. Smiles and laughter are evidence of how wondrous the new world must be through your wide eyes – there are beautiful things, and terrible things in the world yet my son. But bask now in the tender glow of your innocence, where all is new and lovely and good. How wonderful you are, and how much brighter the world seems with you in it.
A suitable drink would be something astounding, so there:
Largiemeanoch (Bowmore) 1967 12 yo, The Howgate Wine Co. , #2655, 2656, 2657, 95 proof/54.2%
This is an incredibly rare Bowmore that has already long ago obtained a legendary status. Helped along by its ungodly colour maybe, which in the glass makes a Black Bowmore look a shade anaemic. This was already rare before there were Black Gold or White Bowmores, I need not harp more, suffice to say this is on the bucket list for many who truly know and chase whisky.
Nose: Huge. We are dealing in expletive superlatives here, and look, it is indescribably good. If I had to break it down, I would note the oak and the sherry are the first to arrive, but a few moments later the intense fruit announces itself. And it’s amazing not just how well the fruit stands up to the huge oak and sherry, but the precise balance it maintains against the wood and wine. To be sure, the finesse of the oak and sherry is beyond reproach. The oak is deep dark resinous and crackingly dry , have you smelt unfinished African Blackwood? And yet the dreaded oak tannins have not gone amok as it might have in a lesser whisky, but here you get the pluses: camphor, tobacco, cedar, dry leather and smoking pine wood overtones. The sherry is dry and purple and again never cloying or sugary but instead aromatic and ‘contained’. The fruit frankly just explodes and manages to be everywhere despite the olfactory onslaught, without losing ground, say no more. Below these is a whole array of scents like rock salt and seaspray, black pepper, nutmeg, mace, dried mint, etc just bustling about. Beautiful.
Palate: How is it possible this is a 12 year old?! Or rather what’s wrong with today’s 12 year olds. Mature at 12. Keeps a lively hot edge but is also deep dark and woody, the dry sherry is also especially loud, but again the fruit arrives in tropical splendour (the expected mango, passionfruit, guava) and persists against the wood and sherry. From a person who usually avoids sherried whisky, I have to say this is sublime. Also has a bitter herbal turn to it, with these hot ember and acrid herb smoke nuances. Gets saltier and more coastal as it develops, but this fruit – so cutting so fresh, so tropical and so loud even against the plethora of wood and sherry notes. Much in line with the Black Bowmores but more intense I think?
Finish: Neverending. Gets saltier, and more piquant with black pepper, capsicums, residual fruit juice, etc. Enthralling, the hype is real.
I understand why this is up there in the pantheon of legendary whiskies, even without this being in my preferred style. Frankly majestic.
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