Just like that the leaves are gone. I remember a month ago thinking they were taking their sweet time. Bowmores in general are fitting fall drams. Their richness with the mild peat, it's all very autumn-y. We've been making our way through their line-up since day 1 (litterally, we started this journey with Bowmore 12) and we're just about done.
Bowmore 18: 43% ABV, $150 CAD, aged in ex-sherry and ex-bourbon casks, Islay single malt.
We sniff around:
Trevor starts us off with cherry.
Reminds Scott of the grape candy flavor of the Amrut. Little smokiness. Little floral note too. Little spearmint note. The peat takes a backseat on this one, but it's there. There's a mango aroma.
Kyle goes for apricot. Some brown sugar.
Simon gets some fruity notes, he's more on the apricot side than the cherry. He gets some wet wood notes too. There's a rich desert note, like an apricot crumble but that's turned a little funky. Simon likes the mango note, but it's a passed due one.
Sean pulls some citrusy notes, oranges and lemon zest. Hay and malty in the background.
We cheers.
Simon points to some unique notes on the finish. Barkiness there. Past due mangos and apricots.
It's pretty fruit Scott says. Like a bunch of penny candies. Big foot, fuzzy peaches, watermelons, gummy worms all at the same time. He gets a nice charred wood on the finish, with some peaty notes.
Kyle gets the minty note on the palate.
Trevor doesn't get all that fruitiness. He gets a wet mossy forest, when the snow melts in March. This takes him there. Dewy, boggy, swampy.
Scott is getting a tropical fruit basket.
Simon's neighbor came by one day and made a smoked peach salsa to top some oysters. This has some of those smoked peach flavors.
Kyle gets a bitterness on the finish, kind of like a dark chocolate, coffee aftertaste. Simon gets that too, some espresso flavors he gets.
Sean pulls smoke, peat, charred wood, ashiness. Bitter finish. Some herbal notes. Salted caramel.
Simon thinks this is a hard scotch to describe. He feels like even with everything we've said, it doesn't really nail down the flavors.
Reviews: Scott's pick. He likes this better than the Bowmore 15. That puts this at 95 for him. This adds to the 15. Love these flavors, the variety, anybody can find something to enjoy in. Good feel to it. Tropical flavors are unique, those mango apricot flavors, interesting notes on the finish too with charred wood espresso notes. Scott likes it the whole way through. Definitely going to look for a bottle when a sale comes on. Kyle lands at 87 on this one. He would probably just buy the 15 though. This doesn't add that much more in his opinion. That said, nice nose, nice finish, good flavors. Simon's going 86. He likes the 15 more, but he can appreciate the 18 gives you flavors you can only get with age. It's tough to rate this, because he doesn't love the flavors, but they're unique, and you can only craft this kind of complexity and these flavors with patience. Trevor loves that this scotch takes him somewhere. This is a standout. You get a full experience from nose to finish. He's landing at 92 on this one. Sean rounds us out with an 81. We average out to 88.2 here.
Overall: You should give this a shot. Bowmore does not fail to impress. This is one of our higher rated scotches, at number 10 out of 123 of the whiskies all 5 of us have reviewed. Some of us will stock it and some won't, but we can all appreciate this is something special and we recommend you experience it at some point.
Cheers!
The S&P Crew.
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