Bowmore Vintner's Trilogy 26 Year French Oak Barrique

Thanks to @pkingmartin I have an opportunity for a fun side-by-side: Bowmore 26 Vintner's Trilogy, and Single Malts of Scotland Bowmore 25 (not on the app yet, maybe I'll add it later). The SMoS simply says "hogshead" for cask type. These are just the 2nd and 3rd Bowmores I've had (the other being the OB 24 Port Matured). Started with the 25. Nose has a lot of custard, vanilla, a touch of honeysuckle, and a wisp of smoke. Pretty nice. On the palate there's dry peat, custard, oak. The finish is a little more floral and oaky. The peat smoke is still front and center despite 25 years in the barrel. Mouthfeel is moderately thick. It's a pretty bare-bones Bowmore that showcases the distillate, and while I was initially a little underwhelmed considering the $500 or so price tag, it's growing on me already. 86/100. On to the 26. The nose is rich, tannic, lots of dark fruit, prune, hint of smoke and dried leaves. On the palate there's some cocoa, prune, blackberry, lightly smoky, with tannins, oak, tea, spice, and a little more peat coming through on the finish. The wine barrel definitely overpowers the distillate, but not quite to the point where the distillate becomes interchangeable. 89/100

So smooth, so rich, bold fruity flavor for a scotch, so expensive... But glad I had a chance to enjoy this. Best scotch I've had!

Very pleasant balance of peat smoke and cherry. Hints of salt and tropical fruits add to the milieu.

Wine cask appears to overpower Bowmore character. A jammy red fruit bomb with a touch of smoke. Nose: Smoke, Toffee, Luxardo Cherries, Cranberries, Strawberries, Dark Chocolate, Oranges, Salted Caramel, Mangoes, Coal, Blueberries, Tinned Peaches, Raspberries Palate: Smoke, Dark Chocolate, Raisins, Almonds, Treacle, Cherries, Plums, Strawberry Jam, Blueberry Jam, Iodine, Beef Ribs Finish: Blueberries, Toffee, Chocolate Oranges, Salted Caramel, Lavender, Plums, Violets

Two whisky things that are more likely than not to disappoint me are Bowmore and wine cask maturations. The former has taken its core range in a tooth-rotting direction that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone, while the frequent application of heavy Cabernet-style finishes at many distilleries too often feels like lipstick on a pig. Here though everything is in balance. The wine cask has added mouth-puckering tannins that make for a deliciously dry dram. There’s a pleasing viscocity to the liquid too and the berry notes from the wine are subtle rather than overpowering. A very satisfying pour, courtesy of @pkingmartin.

Vintner. Every time I hear “vintner’ I think of my friend, who we”ll call ‘S”. I was doing my MBA while she was a senior at same university. Her father was a retired Goldman Sachs exec who owned a winery in Napa. You see, S came from a very conservative upper crust family. When you are worth in the billions, you are expected to behave in a certain way. And S was far from that ideal behavior. She was living with a guy who surely wouldn’t fall into the category of “status appropriate” for her parents. He was high most of the times. But...it turned out that I fell into that “marriage appropriate” category. I had the educational pedigree and child-of-immigrant-parents work ethic apparently that her dad approved of, So...whenever her parents came to visit, I was presented as the boyfriend. This meant holidays at their ranch in Wyoming, and Christmas weeks at their ski house in Utah. Every one of these visits always had her father’s top shelf wine bottles from his winery. One thing I distinctly remember from his wines was the taste of blackberry. All his top shelf private family-only bottles had a taste of blackberry. And I distinctly remember that, back then, I kept thinking “ what’s the big deal? I can get blackberries for $2/carton at the local Kroger’s “. Yes. Such is the life of a fake boyfriend. Skiing in Utah, horseback riding in Wyoming, and the much needed departure from campus bar Bud Lights to private bottles of Napa Pinot Noir wines that tasted like blackberries. And that takes me to this pour. @pkingmartin graciously sent over a sample. This is one of the best Bowmores I’ve had. Mocha, blackberries, cherry, and surprisingly...a hefty dose of peat, which I would think would’ve reduced at this age. I mean, the blackberry takes center stage, but the peat presence is there. But it’s the blackberry that has the limelight here. And we’re not talking $2/carton blackberries, but the Whole Foods organic ones that are $7/carton. So...wherever “S” is nowadays, I’m envious of her husband...he’s probably sitting somewhere in a Wyoming ranch or Utah ski chalet having wine that taste like this amazing bottle of Bowmore Vintner. Damn. If only I played my cards right... Thanks @pkingmartin for this pour!