Bowmore 16 Year Old 1993 TWA The Perfect Dram

The German Indie The Whisky Agency already has quite a few Bowmore on their CV. This is one of these, a 16 Year Old in the range ‘The Perfect Dram’. It was distilled in 1993 (connoisseurs say this was a top year for Bowmore, what do I know?) and bottled in 2010 at a cask strength of 59,9%. Whopping!

The nose is silky soft and light peat, tobacco, greasy coals and iodine. Very mineraly. A lot of citrus, both lime, mandarin and grapefruit. Almost tropical, in fact. Pineapple and mango after a while. Sweet butter, vanilla, ashes. Nice development, very complex. Adding some water emphasizes the tropical fruit and makes it shed its coastal jacket.

On the palate, it is very creamy, but also very spicy. Again, grapfefruit, tar and ashes and a tsunami of salty sea water. Bittersweet tangling with bittersalt! Quite bitter, but not from the oak. Nice smoky edge to it, as well. And a touch of mint. Wonderful. Diluted, I get more ashes, but the sweet fruit again comes to the fore. This is absolutely wonderful.

It is the brine, nicely countered with the sweet fruits at the death, that dominate the lingering finish. The smoke remains discretely in the background until the very end.

This one is hard to get, but if you do find it, be prepared to cough up around 150 EUR for it (while originally it was being sold for half that). Wonderful nose! And gets better with water, in my opinion. Great Bowmore.

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