Review by: ZoidbergOnTheRocks
I’ve had a few Bowmore samples/minis knocking around for a bit, so I figured I’d get all the Bowmore I have on-hand out of the way at once 🙂 Tasted on 10/6/2020, neat in a Glencairn.
This is a Bowmore 12 mini, 40% ABV in a 5cl bottle. No info on color of filtering, but I think we can assume both. The label is a little older than the current bottlings, but it looks pretty familiar to me, so I’d guess this is an early 2010’s bottle.
I haven’t had Bowmore 12 in a while and looking at my spreadsheet, I have a note that says not to buy anything younger than 18 years from them 😉 Let’s see if I can remember why I wrote that.
Distillery: Bowmore
Bottler: Distillery Bottling
Region: Scotland, Islay
ABV: 40.0%
Age: 12 years old.
Nose: green apple, seaweed, mild wood smoke, some perfume, a bit oaky, maybe a bit of tropical fruit, and mild allspice.
Taste: pepper, mild smoke, sweet apple, seaweed, a bit medicinal, some caramel, pretty thin mouthfeel.
Finish: more tropical fruit than apple on the finish, mild pepper, a little smoke, some nice seawater, a bit medicinal, rather short and bitter off the end. Kind of an oaky bitterness really.
The nose is pretty reasonable, but the palate is thin and pretty forgettable, and the finish is a shame. It’s not well balanced at all, honestly seems a bit hot for it’s scant 40% ABV, and the bitterness comes quickly and is unpleasant. There are significantly better base expressions in many other Islay brands, and I think my note about not going below 18 years for them was really a reminder that the 12 kinda sucks vs. other options.
Final Score: 72.
Bowmore 18yr OB bottled in 2014 at 43% ABV. No info on coloring or filtering, but I’m gonna say it’s obviously both. Not much else to say, let’s try it.
Distillery: Bowmore
Bottler: Distillery Bottling
Region: Scotland, Islay
ABV: 43.0%
Age: 18 years old. Bottled in 2014.
Nose: peat, mild smoke, sea spray, iodine, menthol, apple, pears, apricot, toffee.
Taste: a bit dry, a little smoke, some pepper, some of the apple and apricot, toasted caramel, a little bit of the sea, some faint sherry notes, thin.
Finish: dry, light smoke, pepper, a bit of apple, a little more tropical, a bit more of that toffee flavor, some seawater, some iodine. Medium finish.
A more interesting, richer nose and a better finish for sure than the 12. Is there a touch of sherry in this? Nothing bitter on the palate or in the finish, and an overall more subtle flavor than the 12. However, it all balances out to… meh. It’s fine, but it’s really forgettable. I have to say that tends to sum up my entire opinion of Bowmore in general: forgettable.
Final Score: 77.
“Peat smoke, pipe ash and pata negra”, a 13yr old single cask Bowmore from SMWS. This is a 2oz sample from a bottle split. No color added and non chill filtered.
Distillery: Bowmore
Bottler: The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS)
Region: Scotland, Islay
ABV: 56.2%, cask strength
Age: 13 years old. Distilled on 02/16/2004.
Cask type: 2nd Fill Ex-Bourbon Hogshead
Natural color. Non-chill-filtered. One of 241 bottles, from a single cask #3.309.
Nose: tropical fruit w/ pineapple and mango, sea spray, some citrus, light iodine, light smoke, warm sand. With water: more fruit, less medicinal.
Taste: tropical fruit, lemon, mild smoke, pepper, seaweed, salt, some iodine, oily, a little dry, a bit mineral, and a little oaky. With water: very similar, perhaps sweeter and fruitier.
Finish: pineapple, lemon, light pepper, a little seawater, salty, a little bit medicinal, long, a little hot, slightly dry, a little bitter & woody on the end. With water: very similar, just not as hot. Still woody on the end.
This is very good. A big difference from the 12 and the 18 right away. It’s bright, tropical, with excellent sea and medicinal notes, all with a good underpinning of smoke. Good mouthfeel, and a nice long finish. It’s a shame it ends up a bit tannic and woody at the end of the finish, especially after the rest of it this feels out of place for sure. Still, a solid bottling and I’ll be honest: I wouldn’t have picked this out as Bowmore blind.
Final Score: 82.
“A marooned wordsmith”, a 13yr old single cask Bowmore from SMWS. This is a 2oz sample from a bottle split. No color added and non chill filtered.
Some dejavu in that summary, and that was the point of the bottle split: two Bowmore distilled on the same date, aged roughly the same amount of time. Are they the same?
Distillery: Bowmore
Bottler: The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS)
Region: Scotland, Islay
ABV: 57.4%, cask strength
Age: 13 years old. Distilled on 02/16/2004.
Cask type: 2nd Fill Ex-Bourbon Hogshead
Natural color. Non-chill-filtered. One of 207 bottles, from a single cask #3.310.
Nose: bright tropical fruit w/ pineapple and mango, sea spray, iodine, light smoke, a bit mineral, ethanol. With water: more smoke and fruit, the ethanol heat is gone, everything else is still there. Better balanced overall.
Taste: mango, smoke, pepper, seaweed, salt, iodine, hot, oily. With water: similar, a bit dry, maybe some citrus tossed in, the heat is gone, still oily feel.
Finish: tropical fruits, pepper, smoke, seawater, medicinal, long, a bit hot honestly, slightly dry. With water: similar but the heat is gone. A bit more mineral. Balance improved. Nice and long. The sea and mineral notes remain.
This is really very good. I’m surprised it’s Bowmore, and I’m surprised by how similar and yet different it is from the 3.309. What a difference a cask makes. The nose between the two are very similar, but they differ on the palate and in the finish. Very good balance on this one, nice mouthfeel, delicious tropical fruit with smoke, the beach, and some good medicinal notes. Excellent. I’m happy to say that I got 4oz of each in these bottle splits, and I’ll keep this 3.310 in a safe place for later.
Final Score: 87.
Comparison
Order: 3.310 > 3.309 > 18 > 12
These SMWS bottles are really quite good, and both are a clear cut above the other two. They’re bright and fruity, with nice sea, peat, and medicinal notes in there. I thought the two SMWS were the same on the nose initially and it took a while to tease them apart. Both are very good with water, and the 3.310 is a cut above the 3.309 which really surprised me. These are the first two single cask IB Bowmore I’ve had, and now I’ll look for more.
The 18 and the 12 are really forgettable drams. The 18 is a good, reasonable bottle that I think should really be their baseline expression. The 12 is sub-par for sure. Going back to either of them after the SMWS bottles is useless. They’ll both be poured out in favor of the two good drams of the night.
Oh, and if you want to know what E150a looks like, just look at the picture. Crazy amounts of color in the 12 and 18.
Scoring Legend:
- 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
- 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
- 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
- 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
- 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
- 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
- 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
- 50-59: Save it for mixing.
- 0-49: Blech.
Malt Runners 