Bowmore Berry Bros. 1989

This is my favourite distllery bottled by my favourite independent bottler. 21 years old so high expectations.

Nose without water is slightly bitter with some sweet fruit notes. Can't detect much smokiness but I find Bowmore needs to breathe more than most whiskies. So adding a touch of water and now leaving for a few mins.......

Now it's more like a classic Bowmore nose - smokiness, fruits and even lavender hints. Wonderful - it's tempting me to take a massive gulp of the stuff, need to resist. :)

Palate is very honeyed followed by lemon. Then we get the cigar-like smoky peatiness always associated with Bowmore, (I think this is the characteristic of Bowmore that makes it my favourite distillery). The finish is exactly that too - lingering fine-cigar smoke on the tongue.

Overall this reminds me most of Tempest but with the extra ageing smoothing it out more and providing a more honeyed dominance. Probably not quite as good as the official 18yo but runs it close. Great stuff!

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