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.
Whiskyrific RSS
- Port Charlotte 12 yo 2004 Highland Laird 57.3% vs Octomore 6.1 / 167 5 yo 57% vs Octomore 7.1 / 208 5 yo 59.5%
- Bowmore 11 yo 2001 / 2013 Berry Bros 20197 46% vs Bowmore 12 yo liquid Library 2001 / 2013 52.9%
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- Dailuaine 34 yo 1980 Special Release 2015 50.9% vs Dalmore 27 yo 1990 / 2017 MacKillop’s Choice #252 54.6%
- Bruichladdich 21 yo 1993 / 2015 Douglas Laing DL10706 51.5% vs Bruichladdich 25 yo 1992 / 2017 Cadenhead 175th Anniv 53.8%
- Springbank 21 yo 1993 / 2015 Lockett Brothers #470 49.4% vs Cooley 22 yo 1991 / 2014 SMWS 117.5 55.5%
- Wardhead 19 yo 1997 Pisces Stellar Selections Japan #186 50.7% vs The Huntly Burnside 18 yo 1997 Dimensions Duncan Taylor #6481 52.5% vs Westport 18 yo 1997 The Oceans Duncan Taylor for Whisk-e Japan #1500071 58.4%
- Port Ellen 1979 / 2014 Gordon & Macphail R0/14/01 46% vs Port Ellen 35 yo 1978 / 2004 Douglas Laing for Alambic Classique DL655 61.1% vs Port Ellen 35 yo 1982 / 2018 Signatory 30th Anniversary #2040 55.1%
- Benromach 28 yo 1965 / 1993 Cadenhead 47.6% vs Laphroaig 10 yo ‘Original Cask Strength’ 57.3% 33.33cl duty free bottle
- Jura 21 yo 1992 / 2014 Hunter Laing for FassZination (Vom Fass) #VF10272 46% vs Jura 27 yo 1967 Stillman’s Dram 45%
