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
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- White Horse America’s Cup 43% vs Pillaged Malt 10 yo Vatted Malt 57.1% ~ 1st edition bottled 2003
- Teaninich 19 yo That Boutique-y Whisky Company Batch 1 48.6% vs Teaninich 32 yo 1983 Adelphi #6738 47.8%
- Bowmore 24 yo 1991 Carn Mor #616 54.9% vs Bowmore 25 yo 1989 Douglas Laing Old Particular #10581 55.1%
- Irish Single Malt Whiskey 24 yo Batch 1 That Boutique-y Whisky Company 46.8% vs Limerick Slaney Malt Irish 23 yo 1991 / 2005 Adelphi #8585 59%
- Isle of Jura 30 yo 1966 / 1996 Signatory #1868/69 52.6% vs Isle of Jura 30 yo 1966 / 1996 Kingsbury #1867 49.7%
- Rosebank 1991 / 2009 Gordon & Macphail #2119/2120/2121 55.3% vs Rosebank 21 yo 1989 / 2010 Lombard for Three Rivers #866 58.1%
- Ben Nevis 19 yo 1996 Distiller’s Art 48% vs Ben Nevis 20 yo 1995 Gleann Mor #11308 53.4% vs Ben Nevis 22 yo 1992 Cadenhead 53.5%
- Lagavulin 25 yo 200th Anniversary 51.7% ~2016 vs Lagavulin 30 yo 52.6% ~ 2006
- Craigellachie 31 yo Batch Batch 04-6137 52.2% vs Cragganmore 29 yo 1973 / 2003 Special Release 52.5%
