Origin: Isle of Islay (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 40%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon
Chillfiltered: Yes
Added coloring: Yes
Owner: Suntory
Average price: € 50.00
Official website: www.bowmore.com
Vote: 79/100
Introduced in 2014, this ‘legendary’ bottling is actually the most recent incarnation of others by the same name, which are around since 1994 with different packaging but always similar composition: minimum alcohol content, maturation all in ex-Bourbon, age not declared.
Released in this guise the same year as the Small Batch, it didn’t share its longevity and diffusion, which reiterates how little sense the indication of more or less limited batches makes when speaking of large productions such as these.
Usual manipulations on the colour and opacity of the distillate, let’s see how it behaves in the glass.
Tasting notes
The nose reveals a rather mild peat as is the distillery’s tradition, veering more towards woodland than coastal evocations, like walking through a pine forest near the sea. Citrus fruits, custard, hint of white fruit (apple, peach, coconut). pineapple syrup, caramel, pine nuts. The smoke grows with time, always in moderation, just as the marine notes become more vivid.
In the mouth, it glides lightly but not ethereally, the coastal peat greets with vigour and then descends almost immediately to the rear, with black pepper and cinnamon lounging on a carpet of candied citrus, unripe banana, apple, liquorice, toasted hazelnuts, burnt caramel. It’s the bitterish tones of burnt that come to the fore along the length, disturbing the balance of the drink.
The finish is not very long with a vein of salty ash and wood that runs through crema catalana, nuts, liquorice.
A promising nose doesn’t find concreteness on the palate, which is unbalanced and overwhelmed by the overtones of wood and peat, which burst through the flavours that, at least initially, were in line with expectations. A whisky that I would describe as crooked.