Bowmore 21 yo 1971 43% vs Bowmore 36 yo 1972 / 2008 Prestonfield #3881 48.8% vs Bowmore 27 yo 1973 / 2000 Blackadder #3176 50.2%
Somewhere else on this sunny island Bowmore week has started…
Bowmore 21 yo 1971 43% ~ bottled 1992
While the fruit isn’t as explosive as say 1968, it remains an encompassing but lazy drone that permeates the nose with the frequency of ripe tangerines, cut stone fruit and some variety of red berries. And together with this flinty, earthy sort of crumbled peat, the tone is struck for a different sort of Bowmore. Make no mistake, it is still gorgeous.
Crushed newspapers, black ink, Kiwi black and some salt tang too, but it is on the palate that the seaspray and dried seaweed in strung nets comes to the fore. Gentle glow of cardamom, aniseed and balm. All the while the sweet and steady mezzo fruit rings true, though a swell to a crescendo would have been glorious, instead it dissipates to calm iodine and salt.
Bowmore 36 yo 1972 / 2008 Prestonfield #3881 48.8%
Gone are the fruit this time, here we move squarely into a phenolic world, albeit a rather clean and medicinal one. Spilt lamp oil, soiled clay pots in mud and stale tea sachets. Strangely lacking some maritime notes too, I find little salt but plenty of earthy peat. More phenols now: Lubricants, hot workshops, and clove oil tablets. Honey gone ‘off’ – is that possible? A shelf of pressed flowers on cardboard giftcards. Finally on the tongue, a warmer welcome with browned butter frangipane and poached apricots in honey, with a generous sprinkling of salt and peated smoke. A bit cerebral I think.
Bowmore 27 yo 1973 / 2000 Blackadder #3176 50.2%
Remaining in that clean mineral and phenolic world but this does have a certain verve to it from an accentuated vanillic sweetness (good oak), plus lots of zesty tangerines and green mangoes. Salty rocks, and a peat furnace in which was thrown limestone, a whole eucalyptus tree, sticky resins, and metal filings. Much simpler in profile but also graced with an equally open charm. Saltwater, quinine and pine needles on the palate. All the required elements are here but the fruit seems brittle, lacking some depth, and the whole mixes like sand in seawater. A bit of heavy phenolic gravitas at its core would have made this outstanding. Still great whisky though.
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- Clynelish 21 yo 1995 Signatory #8672 55.5% vs Clynelish 22 yo 1995 Signatory #8673 56.3%
- Ledaig 17 yo 1997 Carn Mor #643080 49.7% vs Ledaig 18 yo 1997 Carn Mor #643023 55.6%
- Ardmore 12 yo 1986 / 1999 100th Anniversary 40% vs Ardmore 20 yo Signatory bottled for the 50th Anniversary of the Forty-Nine Wine & Spirit Club in 2009 54%
- Glenlivet 26 yo 1968 / 1994 Signatory #2821 51.2% vs Glen Grant 25 yo 1976 / 2001 Signatory #2889 58.2%
- ‘Hakushu’ Hakushu 43% vs Yoichi ‘Peaty and Salty’ 55%
- Bowmore 1957 / 1990 Moon Import 40% vs Bowmore Jug 1955 / 1974 ‘Specially bottled for 12th September 1974’ ceramic decanter
- Wardhead 19 yo 1997 Impressive Cask Whisky-e Ltd 51.1% vs Wardhead 19 yo 1997 Big Fish Whisk-e Ltd 51.3%
- Brora 37 yo 2016 Special Release 48.6% vs Brora 37 yo 2015 Special Release 50.4%
