Reverend357
Bowmore 18 Year
Single Malt — Islay, Scotland
Reviewed
December 22, 2023 (edited December 24, 2023)
Oh boy. I might be on an Islay trip, because this one blows the Macallan from before out of the water, and an 18 Year old Age Statement whisky for - on sale - under 100 bucks?....I might have just ordered a bottle.
This one is weird. Really weird. Not nearly as peaty or smoky as other Islay that I enjoy, and with a lot of very, very confusing notes that I do not get all that much, especially on the nose.
We start with some light ash, then there is a certain salty spike that is very different from your usual sea-salt notes. It goes more in the direction of pink Himalaya stone salt (yes, they all smell and taste different. I have 3 salt mills on my desk, and I like to east salt raw, without anything else, to get the different flavor...I might be the weird one here). There is also a very distinct vegetable note, most similar to green bell peppers freshly cut. And for some reason, fried tofu.....and I only recognize this because I had that for the first time this Monday. Very, very weird, unique, and interesting nose profile.
And the taste continues to be weird, but with a bit more familiar notes. Creamy, salted caramel, grilles, slightly charred peppers (bell peppers or even some light chilis like jalapeno), creamy vanilla pudding, but all without a lot of sweetness. There is also a hint of cinnamon in here, and everything held together by a slight, yet definitively present peat smoke layer.
A somewhat drying, salty and smoky aftertaste that stays for what feels like an eternity, but never gets too extreme.
Another contender for the top 5 Islay. I have a bottle of the Bowmore 12 that I already liked, but it feels like Bowmore somewhat gets overshadowed by the 3 Dark Cults (Ardbeg, Laphroaig, Lagavulin) and even Port Charlotte to some extend. Shame on one hand, good on the other since it means there older Whiskies are not priced to hell and back already.
2 more to go till Christmas. One Mezcal, and a Green Spot Variant. Good times.
110.0
EUR
per
Bottle
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@Slainte-Mhath I never gave much thought to the whole E150a thing. Never really mattered much to me. But yeah, I can see it, Bowmore tends to be a lot darker than Laphroaig or Ardbeg. Not sure why they do it but eh, marketing be marketing. The proof could be higher, true..43% is bare minimum.
@Reverend357 I have never been a fan of Bowmore, the official bottlings are E150a-loaded, heavily chill filered and diluted excuses of what otherwise could be a great malt. There are some great Bowmore's among the independent bottlers, but prices are way beyond their intrinsic value.