Bowmore 18 Year Deep & Complex

Nose: Ancient, fusty oak cupboards, waxed for 80 years. A saline-tinged smoke note - grandma's sitting room with an open fire burning pine-logs. Candied orange peel, bramble jam and brown bread toast, dried dates and figs. Creaking stairs leading up to a medicine cabinet in an old, damp bathroom reeking of iodine swabs, oil of wintergreen liniment and sulphur powder. Palate: A soft but firm arrival rooted in the flavours of dark fruit and berries, but stained by the patina of vegetative decay and brackish smoke. More smoky notes quickly surface in the development with an iodine and menthol astringency. There is a red berry/grape sweetness but the mouth-feel is both oily and dry - almost styptic. Coal tar and a tiny salt licorice note. Finish: Medium/long: Smoky, briny, sour peat and bitter citrus leading to a dark chocolate aftertaste with endless ashen smoke and a mist of menthol. Ah, Bowmore ... the enigma of Bowmore. How I love you and despise you. The colour is deep mahogany, due to the outrageous amount of E150a that has been added. Yes, it's a TRE expression and that means fool the naive customer with colour and chill-filter the life out of the juice. Shame on you, Bowmore - you should be leading the industry, not enshrining the crime. The nose here is old, but corrupted. There is a musty foetid quality that speaks more eloquently of decay than maturity, and there is something creepy in its tension between alluring and repellent. One moment I get the deep, old oak and peat-reek heart, then the next something ghastly and sulphurous is creeping from the gloomy moonlit salt waters of Loch Indaal into the corner of my darkened room. The palate is cereal sour, brackish and slightly metallic but cloaked by very sweet sherry (it's astonishing how well these opposites cancel each other out in the palate). Sharp and bright at one moment, then dull and cold, then hot and deep. The regular Bowmore 18 has an elegant and staid complexity. It's an expression full of walnuts, old leather, pipe tobacco and orange marmalade. It is the good child, this is the evil twin locked in the cellar. I'm conflicted as to how to rate this - one part of me loves its eldritch weirdness, the other thinks it's just a ham-fisted failure, another in the long line of failures created by Bowmore over the years. It is deep, certainly, but is it really complex or just a plain mess? I can't bring myself to rate this as "Good", so it slots in at the next rung down. The regular price in Australia is $185, which is laughable. I found it for $110 which is just barely good value. Oh - a dash of water brings it successfully to its knees and greatly aids enjoyment - highly, highly recommended. It's one of the few peated and heavily sherried whiskies I can think of where water does not produce rubber or plastic notes but actually assuages the peat, thereby greatly enhancing the profile, particularly by balancing all that brine with some sweetness. "Above Average" : 81/100 (3 stars)

Chill filtered ..... ✔️ Lots of E150 ..... ✔️ 43 abv .............. ✔️ Do I care? No! Why? Read on... I see a lot of whiskies around here being judged by this parameters when I think what really matters at the end is how it smells/tastes and specially how you like it. Do I like this one? A lot! This one has a lovely deep chestnut color (yes, E150, I know...) that happens to match the overall darker profile of the whisky, so no problem here. The aroma is the highlight on this one, I could just pour a dram and keep smelling the glencairn for hours... There is a smoky peat/chocolate combo that assault your senses as soon as you put your nose into the glass, but soon after there is more, a lot of dark fruits join the party, specially figs, plums and ripe cherries, all covered by the smoked chocolate... Just yummy! 😋 The palate is also delicious, although a bit thin (my only complain here). You can feel the sweet PX influence and there is less peat and more spice than the nose suggest but something I can’t put my finger on just keeps me sipping over and over again, maybe the overall balance, maybe the finish, that is a lot smokier than the palate and a great surprise. Anyhow, this one (imho) joins the likes of Lagavulin 16 and Dalmore 18 as a great whisky despite of the “flaws” early mentioned that all of them share.

Nose: Burned wood, blackberries, Concord grapes and touch of eucalyptus oil. Palate: Not particularly sweet, but I do get a grape candy note flavour poking though a very dominant dry woodsy flavour. There's some tarry peat in the mix as well. Finish: Lingering dry burned wood and eucalyptus oil. Medium length. This was overall a pretty disappointing bottle even though it was relatively inexpensive for an 18 year old scotch (101$ CAD). Makes me wonder whether I should even bother with the standard 18 year old?

NOSE: The color tells of sherry influence, but the nose is funky with peat. Good funky like dry autumn leaves and liquorice. Underneath you find salted roasted almonds and dried apricots. Sea salt. Maybe chocolate. PALATE: Salted toffee, dried apricots, spicy ginger and mint, settles into a long and warming sea salt, cherries, and dark chocolate note. OVERALL: This is a strong, full flavor profile. It marries aged Speyside with Islay peat flavors with a great harmony and plenty of layers to explore.

N: Delightful nose. Strong sherry cask scent, vanilla, light fruits, sweet toffee P: Doesn’t deliver on the nose. Very light, less sweetness and a light mouth feel but not silky as I would expect. Everything was there but just not as vibrant as you would expect. F: Quite a nice finish. Little spice left lingering but once again very light. Quite a nice whisky, but feel a little let down from the initial anticipation.

After some months now of letting the bottle open up and retesting for 10 months now I have to say I do not like this one that much as the flavor profile is not that enticing to me but somewhat off putting. Will not purchase again and this bottle will last quite a long time.