Bowmore 12-Year
40% ABV - Islay, Scotland
Nose: Sweet floral notes, baking spice, ginger, and brine all mixing together – the peat is subtle and arrives later with hints of rubber tubing and damp earth.
Taste: Marine and peat smoke flavours dominate though they are delicate on the arrival. This is met with citrus and lighter florals.
Finish: Warm spices, charred wood, and peat smoke are lasting flavours. Intermingled with sweet floral, lemon heat and briney notes.
This is the whisky that introduced me to the smokier side of things. It has been a few years now since that fateful bottle led me down the winding, earthy, peaty, smoky path of discovery… and really, this bottle (circa 2018) has much different flavours than I remember! Likely just attributed to a changing – or shall we say, “evolving” – palate, but it would be fun to try this release against circa 2015 or older.
Bowmore 12 is an offering from one of my current favourite distilleries (nods to Laphroaig and Caol Ila) and I have aggressively expanded my cache of expressions in the past couple years – more exciting bottles to open, share, and review! Now I’ve heard of the “Bowmore problem” previously,... the notion that the liquid is only optimal at or near cask strength, and with most marketed bottles hovering in the low 40s they do not fit the bill. Though I do not buy into this myself – love ‘em all! Bowmore 15 Darkest is my pick from the current core range and some of the limited releases are in my all-time top 10 drams!
Tasted 04 November 2018.
