This ‘small batch release’, which isn’t a very small batch at all, was done in 2012 for travel retail. I managed to pick up a bottle at some point, but it’s been so long that I don’t recall where I got it.

Anyway, back then it was a liter of pretty straight forward Bowmore at high strength for about € 60, so there wasn’t much complaining to happen.

By now the bottle is long gone, but the tasting notes haven’t been published yet. At the moment I am having a massive cold, so nothing new is being written. Luckily, there’s about a hundred backed up tasting notes ready to be processed into a proper blog post.

Sniff:
Dry smoke, salinity, like being in the town of Bowmore when they’re peating their barley. Some fruitiness, with apple, grape, grass, minerals and brine.

Sip:
Strong, very strong. Dry and crisp, but with bread, grain and some oak. Dry smoke, salty, briny. Quite some fruitiness, but also the strangely chemical Bowmore-ness. Slight hints of ammonia, in a good way, if that’s a thing.

Swallow:
A slightly sharp finish, warming, but crisp. Star fruit, apple, grape, not too long.

The youth of the whisky isn’t being hidden, but it’s not a problem at all. Instead of it tasting overly green, there’s just a lack of mellowness or maturity instead. Pretty straight forward, as expected, but it does exactly what it’s supposed to do.

It gives the typical crisp Bowmore flavors and scents, with quite a bit of smoke to back it up. Due to it not being very old, there’s quite a bit more smoke than I’m used to from Bowmore.

All in all, this is a rather lovely whisky. After opening the bottle it went rather quickly, even though it was a liter. But I really wanted I could get one on the secondary market for around € 100, which I think is a fair price for a bottling from eight years ago.

87/100

Bowmore 100 Degrees Proof, Small Batch Release 2012, 57.1%