I don’t think I’ve ever made this a secret, but I do love Bowmore. Especially from the mid-nineties. You don’t read about that too often, since that shit is unaffordable by now. Luckily, I got this sample from EH/EE a while ago, and I have some other reviews lined up of similar vintages (although I believe these others are from 1997, which is a slightly less awesome vintage).

Cooper’s Choice is always a bit sketchy. They’ve had awesome bottlings over the years, but they also sometimes bottle garbage like Tormore matured in both Calvados AND Laphroaig casks. Yes I do have that bottle, for an AA (Apples and Alcohol) tasting two years ago. Never touched it since. But, there is also this one.

Let’s see where this one lands!

Sniff:
Ooooh, yes. This is a Bowmore alright! It has that familiar and strangely appealing note of ammonia and lemon and peat smoke. It’s slightly acidic, quite high in salinity and a little bit sea-weedy.

Sip:
The palate continues down the same road. There’s a lime like acidity, as well as a sea spray in Bowmore’s harbour. There’s heat like white pepper, with some dry sawdust. The ammonia, that’s the magic that takes Bowmore from good to great.

Swallow:
The finish linger quite a while but shows a bit more sweetness than the nose and palate did. Acidic, salty, briny, with barley and oak and smoke. And, of course, that ammonia note. Or cat pee, of whatever you like to call it.

It’s such a strange thing to have ammonia (not entirely unlike cat pee, somehow) as a tasting note and love it. It is also the one thing that makes Bowmore rise above many other distilleries, and especially the very early vintages, as well as the mid-nineties.

90/100