Distillery: Bowmore

Here’s the second in a set of three Old Particular whiskies from one of the great indy distillers, Douglas Laing. Each bottling of the series is from a single cask so number of bottles available are quite limited.

16 years old is a good age for Bowmore. Oh heck, any age is a good age for Bowmore! But I’ve generally had good experiences with teenagers from the distillery so I have high expectations here…

Nose: Shoe leather, clean and crisp. Crystalline pear sugar. Ripe juicy plums, tangerine syrup and sliced guava. An edge of chalky, salty minerality.

Palate: Fruity smoke and spice with Signature Bowmore parma violets. Pineapples and pears. Salty chilli chocolate. Seville Marmalade.

Finish: Chalky and perfumed with a tingly smoke tang.

Cracking fruity notes in this one with that gentle salty peat smoke and sweet-shop edge so typical to Islay’s oldest working distillery. At £91 I’d say this a solid cask strength expression. I don’t know if it’s old enough to be branded “Old Particular”, but it’s definitely got maturity and character.

Next time, I’ll be trying the Bunnahabhain 17…

You can get samples (and bottles) of the Old Particular range from www.MasterOfMalt.com.