Quickly after the terrific Springbank 1998 there’s now a second chapter within the Whiskyland sequence from Decadent Drinks. Really there’s a third chapter already… we’ll come to that later. The brand new launch is a Bowmore 2004. Way more inexpensive than the Springbank, after all.
Bowmore 20 yo 2004 (53,3%, Decadent Drinks ‘Whiskyland’ 2024, refill hogshead, 171 btl.)
Nostril: le nouveau Bowmore, an attractive mixture of fruit and peat. Hints of lemon and lime, with whiffs of banana, peach and stewed tropical notes (papaya). Then seaside sand, saltwater, seaweed, some dried herbs and light-weight menthol. A effective, barely floral type of ashy smoke within the background.
Mouth: oily, with smoked gooseberries, limes and pink grapefruit, together with chilly ashes and iodine. Again to rosemary, vegetal oils, white pepper and cumin. Only a trace of creamy vanilla. Then oyster brine and mineral notes, peated grist and plain sea salt, in addition to a greasy high quality in direction of the tip.
End: medium size, salty and barely leafy, with refined coal smoke and lemon.
Whereas unbiased bottlers have all the time confirmed us this beautiful type of Bowmore, it is just since just a few years that the distillery is transferring (again) in direction of this profile in official bottlings. Anyway, just like the sister cask from the Islay Sponge sequence, however tighter and fewer exuberantly fruity, for my part.
Value-wise that is on the decrease finish of the brand new Whiskyland sequence, however the high quality is undeniably excessive. Offered out from Decadent Drinks however obtainable from Grasp of Malt.
