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
- Macallan 30 1963 / 1993 Cadenhead 54.7% vs Macallan 13 yo 1973 / 1987 SMWS 24.6 61.7%
- Highland Park 33 yo 1977 / 2010 Perfect Dram 52.3% vs Highland Park 10 yo 1973 /1984 SMWS 4.2 57% ~ destroyed label
- Crown Vat 20 yo Blended 27th May 1966 Rotation 66/27 L.W. Cos 169 40% vs Macphail’s 10 yo Pure Malt Scotch Whisky Gold 106 60.5% Meregalli
- Macduff 21 yo (1970) James MacArthur’s 55.5% bottled Aug 1991 vs Macduff 13 yo 1974 / 1987 SMWS 6.5 58.2%
- Springbank 15 yo black label 46% vs Springbank 25 yo parchment label 46%
- Bruichladdich 25 yo 1958 Cadenhead, Macallan 15 yo 1946 Securo, Macallan 1962, Springbank 1965 Moon Import The Birds #367, Glenfiddich 29 yo 1956 Intertrade, Clynelish 1974 Modern Masters, Caol Ila 21 yo 1968 for Intertrade, Glen moray 25 yo 1959 Samaroli, Glen Grant 21 yo 1972 Whyte & Whyte, Talisker 1979 Whyte & Whyte
- Laphroaig 40 yo 1960 / 2001 42.4% vs Laphroaig 28 yo 44.4% (2018)
- West Indies Dark Rum 1948 Samaroli 49% vs Lapalun Rhum Petit-Bourg Vieux Rhum dela Martinique 1952 / 1972 50%
- Dornoch New Make August 2019 60% vs Dornoch New Make 63.5% ~ circa April 2018
- Tobermory 32 yo 1972 / 2005 49.5% vs Tormore 16 yo 1966 / 1982 Samaroli 57%
