Bowmore 21 Year; Hunter Laing’s Old Malt Cask (K&L Wine Merchant Cask Selection)
Whisky : Bowmore 21 Year; Hunter Laing’s Old Malt Cask (K&L Wine Merchant Cask Selection)
Country/Region : Islay
ABV : 52.8%
Cask : Ex-Bourbon
Nose : Juicy tropical fruits, propane grill, and house paint— it’s a tropical backyard barbecue. Dragonfruit and green mangos may come and go, but pineapple just keeps wafting out of the glass. The wife reckoned it was pineapple that had been sitting around for a bit— slightly acetone and starting to ferment, but juicier than ever. Tart and salty spice like li hing mui— dried pickled plum powder— compliment the fruits (and of course pairs perfectly with pineapple)— though sometimes the salty notes come out a bit stronger and veer toward sweet smoked salmon.
Palate : Tastes like it smells according to the wife. Plenty of tropical fruits, grilled pineapple, mango, papaya roll down the palate with a lovely medium body— slightly waxy with good viscosity. Sweet paprika, lemon grass, and coriander give the dram an exotic dose of delicious spice along with hints of yuzu and citrus. A faint grill smoke and notes of butterscotch combine with the fruit to give the impression of a gooey pineapple upside down cake.
Finish : Lingering tropical fruits with a touch of tar and diesel that build a bit on the palate and last through the finish.
Score : 8
Mental Image : Fruit plate at a BBQ.
Something Better : Longrow 15Y Chardonnay (more grilled tropical fruits, more char, juicier, thicker)
Something Similar : Westland Garryana 2018 Edition 3.1 (similar bbq and fruits, more grill/fireworks)
Something Worse : Arran 14 Year (similar tropical fruits, more spice, less complex, less finish)
Notes : I was on the fence a little about trying this one. $150 is a lot to gamble on a single cask whisky from a fairly hit or miss distillery like Bowmore— but it is also ridiculously below the market average for a cask strength independently bottled Bowmore. There had to be a catch or something wrong with it, how else could the price be so comparatively low.
When a fellow aficionado shared their initial impression with me and reckoned that the K&L notes were right on the money with this one, I knew I needed it— if not a full bottle then at least a quarter share of a bottle. I am quite pleased with how it turned out. There is a lovely balanced to the strong tropical fruit notes, the spices, and just a hint of savory smoke. I do not think I have ever had a Bowmore lean quite so heavily into a tropical fruit profile that was not matured in an ex-wine or sherry cask. These fruity notes here are coming straight off the malt— it almost reminds me of an Arran more than a Bowmore. I assume the peat level on this batch was pretty low or perhaps a lot of the classic smokey-tar peat notes in Bowmore just sloughed off during the fermentation, the distillation cuts, or the two decades it spent in its cask.
Truly this is a great sipper and a solid older Bowmore for a more reasonable price than you are likely to see elsewhere. If I were passing through California in the foreseeable future I would immediately add this to a Will-Call order and plan a stop by a K&L.
