I sometimes get the question ‘which distillery should I look into?’ and then Bowmore is always one of my answers. They’ve taken an impressive leap forward from the horrible violet-infused production and the mediocre wine finishes. A few years ago we started to see a new style of spirit, full of fruits, even tropical fruits. Today these can be found in several official bottlings. At the same time independent bottlers seem to have access to more Bowmore again, and seem to embrace the new style.
At the Limburg Whisky Fair a lot of people talked about two Bowmore 2005 expressions, the one from TWA and this one from The Whisky Jury.
Bowmore 21 yo 2005 (52,8%, The Whisky Jury 2026, cask #250906, 224 btl.)
Nose: aromatic, bright fruits. Crisp apple, pineapple, hints of kiwi and unripe peach. There’s an immediate sense of tropical fruits, even though it takes fifteen minutes to really appear. It blends with soft smoky notes and sea spray. A whiff of lemon verbena and lemon cream cheese too.
Mouth: starts really mineral, with stone dust, some herbal notes, white pepper and leafy notes. Austere onset. At some point I feared the tropical fruits weren’t coming, but then pineapple and passion fruits appeared in full force. Lime and guava too. Then some zesty bitterness of grapefruit comes out which works well here.
Finish: good length, with a mild fruity sweetness but also mineral notes, citrus zest and a little pepper taking over.
Pretty excellent again. This one has a firm mineral and slightly austere character, but the tropical fruits are also having their say. You may want to check the TWJ retailer list, although most European shops seem to have sold their entire stock.