I rarely buy bottles from The Whisky Agency, and I have been wanting to do a bottle-share with some for ages. It just doesn’t seem to happen for some reason.

When I did buy a bottle last year, my good friend JP bought one too. Both a Bowmore. We promised each other samples, but since he is not going through way too many open ones and is opening bottles more or less when he buys them, I already got his and he’ll get mine at some point.

Anyway, Bowmore. With the glorious bottling from somewhere in the 90s until now, it’s quickly becoming a favourite too.

Bowmore 12. Liquid Library

Sniff:
Lightly peated, but a lot heavier in other areas. There’s some lemon curd in there, but also nuts, dried lemon, some damp earth. Maybe even mushrooms. Some oak, but not overly so.

Sip:
The palate is crisp, and rather sharp. Lemony, some oak but also quite some spices. Some cinnamon and ginger, lemon, lime even. There’s also a bit of a cocktail like bitterness. Luckily the lime bit doesn’t go into the cleaning liquid spectrum.

Swallow:
The finish mellows out quickly. It’s fairly short even. More malty than I expected, but pretty good.

Although I don’t care for the finish (absolutly not bad, but rather uninteresting) the palate is great. Unlike most Scotches, in which I prefer the nise above all) in this case the palate is the best part. A really good dram, and I think I remember it was nicely priced too!

Bowmore 12, 2001-2013, 52.9%, Liquid Library

Thanks to JP for the sample!