Bowmore Vintner's Trilogy 27 Year Port Cask

The best of the vintners with loads of red fruits, tropical fruits, plums, salinity, and smoke. Nose: Raspberries, Luxardo Cherries, Salted Toffee, Blueberries, Smoke, Honey, Iodine, White Chocolate, Cherry Cola, Roses Palate: Raisins, Plums, Iodine, Smoke, Coal, Blueberries, Grapefruit, Figs, Guava, Pineapples, Luxardo Cherries, Raspberries, Nutella Finish: Raspberries, Luxardo Cherries, Watermelon, Peaches, Grapefruit, Plums, Figs

I recently attended a Friends of Laphroaig tasting event that also featured some bottles from its sister Beam-Suntory brand Bowmore. I'm not an age snob (see previous review of Laphroaig 30 Ian Hunter for a longer explanation), but this is a knockout of a dram. It is heavily fragrant, with an alluring mixture of dark chocolate, raspberry coulis, and woodsmoke on the nose. The palate is richer than the ABV, while the bite is lower: toffee, more peat, and stewed fruits swirl together. I have found port finishes to be very hit and miss for Islay whiskies, with Laphroaig's 2013 Cairdeas Port Wood being an all-time high and Kilchoman's recent port finishes to be off-putting. This is a very successful port finish that reminds me of that old Laphroaig, albeit costing 5 times as much! This dram's final notes are classic sweet-and-peat, with more smoke than I'd expect for a scotch that's just a few years younger than I am, and I was sorry to see it go.

★★★★★ Bowmore Vertical 7 of 7 It is the oldest whisky of the day and it has aged in a port barrel, all to please me. Unfortunately, it's an instant love at first sight and at $740 a bottle, it's a bit the same feeling I have when I admire Kate Upton, an inaccessible dream. But in life, it's good to dream and at least I had the chance to dip my lips in this nectar of the gods and I can't say the same with the beautiful Kate. Who knows, maybe one day!

Tasted at The Whisky Show London 2018