Last week, BB tipped us this event when we met. Tonight, JS and I meet here for the first time. cavalier66 joins us, who has been before. Only six of us, tonight, amongst whom Gunooner.
Bowmore 29yo 1950/1979 Bicentenary (43%, OB, Sherry and American Oak Casks, 24,000b)
Nose: tarry passion fruits, purple maracuja and soot, followed by jams and jellies of all sorts. It is definitely fruity, yet the fruitmonger used to be a chimney sweep. cavalier66 finds it a touch of petroleum, as well as medicinal and herbal notes. For me, it is asafoetida that emerges, and a butyric side. cavalier66 finds pickled onions.
Mouth: salty and briny, it soon gives more soot and charcoal dust. Grilled fruits follow suit, with chargrilled peaches and persimmons. It has burnt-wood gratings too that never overpower the fruits.
Finish: thin and short, it has the allure of a dry white wine, Sauvignon blanc, ashy and mineral. The second gulp adds hardened rubber and crushed pistachio shells.
Comment: "bottled for the Italian market," our host says. It has no tax seal and no importer indication, which would have been illegal in Italy (and still is). The paperwork is, indeed, in Italian, though. I suspect an Italian box to complement a UK bottle. In any case, despite being excellent, it is not the best of the Bicentenary expressions I have had the pleasure to try (the honour would belong to this one). Finally, the paperwork is clear: this is a vatting of ten different vintages, the most recent of which is 1950, aged twenty-nine. Written black on white.
Score: 9/10
Our host regrets that he forgot to pour us the welcome drink. It is a Lagavulin. With a mix of gratefulness and disbelief, I put my glass to the side. I am not tarnishing old Bowmores with a peaty Lagavulin!
Bowmore 34yo 1968/2002 (41.40%, Duncan Taylor Peerless, C#1427, 210b, b#060)
Nose: coconut and yellow passion fruit (cavalier66). This is a fruity killery of the highest calibre. Carambola, mango, jackfruit, yellow maracuja, persimmon and lychee grow at second nose, buttery peaches and overripe apricots join them. cavalier66 detects anchovies. Must be the pizza from his lunch stuck between his teeth!
Mouth: floral (cavalier66). It has a vague floral hue, almost impossible to read underneath the cascade of fruits. However, that comes with grains of soot on the tongue. The second sip is a notch bitterer, with ground mace and a lick of rubber amongst the now-dominant nectarines.
Finish: big, surprisingly minty, fruity and a tad peppery (think: peppermint). It takes two gulps for yellow fruits to come to the top, but when they do, they rule. cavalier66 talks about elderflower cordial.
Comment: with exactly zero surprise, this is fantastic and will remain the dram of the night for JS and tOMoH.
Score: 9/10
Our host, paralyzed_frank, asks us if we want to try a certain Glenlivet. He says he does, so he will pour it for all. Another dram for the back of the queue, as far as I am concerned.
Bowmore 21yo d.1973 (43%, OB)
Nose: pickled onions ("of the dark-brown variety, hanging at your aunt's for several years," says cavalier66). It really is onion-y: onions that have fermented in the larder and dripped, decayed red onions, smoked and smashed on earth, acetone (cavalier66).
Mouth: pwah! Parma violet, lavender, perfume of you-know-whom. This is too much, even for me. Crystallised violet sweets come out on top and almost save it, but it sadly only has a novelty value. The second sip is even more violet-y, too much for tOMoH, who is usually not at all negatively-impacted by this well-known taste.
Finish: long, bitter, violet-y. It is less sweet -- or it has fewer sweets. Instead, it tickles perfume. A sentiment which is confirmed with the second gulp.
Comment: 750ml bottle (not 75cl), no US Proof nor importer information. paralyzed_frank explains it is a UK version from before 70cl became the standard; I beg to differ: that was in 1991; this is twenty-one years old distilled in 1973. It was bottled 1994 or 1995. Besides, the earlier bottlings indicated 75cl, not 750ml. Which market was this for? South Africa? Anyway, this is not my thing.
Score: 6/10
Bowmore 21yo (43%, OB imported by Carmi Zvi, F158, b. ca. 2000s)
Nose: an earthier number, it has warm rubber and heated liquorice allsorts. It also smells a lot stronger than its predecessor. Preserved lemons, dried and salty. Some fruits emerge at second nosing, mostly apricots, fresh and dried. There is a pinch of dried herbs too, likely tarragon and oregano.
Mouth: sea salt (cavalier66), crystallised liquorice, a lick of anthracite, and chewy blackcurrant cough drops. There is a veil of smoke, but it is hardly noticeable.
Finish: bigger, longer, more sherried. It has liquorice, soot, tar, creosote and lint. It is not a brutal finish, but it sticks to the gums like a petrolic Sherry.
Comment: several of us expected this one, being likely distilled in the 1980s, to be the violet-y one. How surprising that it has none of that, when its more-ancient equivalent is plagued by it. Did they mix up the glasses upon serving?
Score: 7/10
A fly sets camp in JS's glass. paralyzed_frank traps it and removes the glass.
tOMoH: "I have a fly in each of my glasses!"
Bowmore 36yo 1972/2008 (45.4%, Signatory Vintage Cask Strength Collection, Fresh Oloroso Sherry Butt, C#3890, 540b, b#6)
Nose: prunes, sultanas, dried figs, a whiff of hashish. It is earthy and a bit, but also promises dried fruits. The second nose is super lush, with prunes and raisins aplenty. It adds a drop of ink, black as night.
Mouth: rancio, elderberry jelly, smashed prunes, dried Medjool dates, fig relish. It has an acidic touch and a slight bitterness -- the Sherry, clearly. The second sip has a mineral touch akin to prunes smashed on pebbles. Ginger and cinnamon powders become more intense with time.
Finish: big, earthy, it has bucketloads of prunes, figs and pressed blackberries. The second gulp is similar: dark, juicy and a little mineral in a tickly way.
Comment: excellent.
Score: 9/10
Bowmore 18yo d.1971 (57.3%, Sestante)
Nose: this is much more austere and mineral, with volumes of pepper and billows of smoke. Smoked pepper ground in a granite mortar, let us say. The longer it sits in the glass, the more mineral it becomes too. The second nose has dried onion peels and candle wax.
Mouth: onion syrup, sweet and pickled, totally weird. Confit d'oignon, JS tells us. It also has a prune-cut-on-slate vibe that is rather original. The second nose seems more nosebleed, drying and numbing, like granite.
Finish: pickled onions again, dripping with syrup. JS is right: it really is confit d'oignon! The dichotomy between syrupy sweetness and pickled acidity is surprising. The second gulp serves that confit on a hot tin plate.
Comment: not an easy one, but very good.
Score: 9/10
Bowmore 16yo d.1973 (62.8%, Sestante)
Nose: this one is even more austere, boiler rooms and dusty machinery. "Blind, would you say Bowmore?" cavalier66 asks. Nope. It is closer to Glen Mhor or Millburn. Metal filings covered in dust, quarry dust. The second nose is austerer yet, if that is possible. It is more and more numbing, like chilli flakes, yet also metallic.
Mouth: confit d'oignon here too, hot metal (zinc, galvanised iron) and hardened rubber, bizarrely enough.
Finish: the Industrial Revolution has begun! Hot dusty metal, smoke, hammered zinc, coal (cavalier66), galvanised iron. The second gulp is numbing, and, considering the ABV, it is hardly unexpected.
Comment: the staff tell us it is close to Baiju. Fortunately, I disagree with them. Wholeheartedly. This is uncompromising, and really a style I appreciate.
Score: 9/10
tOMoH: "Does he have a girlfriend?"
Bowmore 22yo 2002/2026 (51%, Thompson Bros. for Bar Lotus, Refill Barrel, 88b)
Nose: extremely custard-y, it has flan tart and banana bread.
Mouth: ginger, a touch of smoke, tree bark, ginseng and rose water.
Finish: smashed banana served in a rubber bowl, dried algae and the residue in an empty vase.
Comment: this is good, but it is hard not to think it is a grave sequence mistake.
Score: 8/10
paralyzed_frank: "I started drinking whisky a year ago."
Our jaws drop in disbelief. It explains the missing bits. Not what is there.
Glenlivet 1946/1972 (43%, Berry Bros. & Rudd)
Nose: boiled potatoes sprinkled with soot. It is most particular! Cinnamon powder ends up making its way through. Then, we have lemons, crisp and acidic in a forest of Epiceas. The second nose has a drop of lemon juice on limestone, effervescent reaction and all.
Mouth: OBE in full effect. This overflows with the tin lids of marmalade jars and copper coins (remarkably not oxidised). It has the bitterness of brass, which makes one think of playing the trombone.
Finish: long and fairly fruity, it has prunes and fresh figs, followed by jam-jar lids and a pinch of soot.
Comment: it is not terribly complex, but very good.
Score: 9/10
Lagavulin 25yo 1990/2015 (44%, The Syndicate, C#4394, 243b)
Nose: vase water, musky hairballs, gunpowder, smashed dried algae. It also emits gas and lingering septic-tank odours -- in a good way. That dissipates to give dust, ash and burnt hair.
Mouth: dry, hairy, it has horse's hair and fairly-new rope. Chewing releases juicy dried fruits, prunes or soaked raisins, then rancio and fermented-onion juice.
Finish: juicy and prune-y, it is also smoky as fook. We have smoked prunes and smoked red onions, caramelised or in a relish format.
Comment: really good. Glad I saved it for last.
Score: 8/10
Good night out. The venue is a little hard to find, with its half-down shutter, I stopped twice to look at the cat in front, without realising it was the place. The selection inside is very impressive and the vibe is as geeky as it gets. Somehow, I did not feel entirely at home, but that must be me.
As for the tasting itself, it was not a guided tasting. More a preselected flight of eight(*) with an imposed pace -- a pace that suited me perfectly.
(*) with inexplicable detours, which I found weird and a little hazardous.
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