1257 Kensington Road NW
1 (403) 283-8000 / atyourservice@kensingtonwinemarket.com
$734.99
How could we turn down the opportunity to bottle another cask of Bowmore, we've only ever bottled one before... This 26 year old from our friends at Berry Bros. & Rudd was filled into a sherry butt (cask #85) in 1997, and was bottled at a natural cask strength of 46.1% in 2023, exclusively for yours truly! There are only 98 total bottles... Sister casks to this bottling have done well on Whiskybase and WhiskyFun (89-91pts). Only 98 bottles!
750 mlAndrew's Tasting Note
Nose: honeyed, chocolatey, and subtly earthy, with bags of fruit; clotted cream and marmalade on a warm scone; wet jujubes and wine gums lead into dried apricot and bbq pineapple; dark chocolate Fruit & Nut bars, Turtles, and a touch of Eatmore; leather and tobacco emerge with a hint of sweet lavender; faint creosote, clean wood smoke and salted caramel.
Palate: sweet, fruity, and oily, with tarry maritime peat; lots of layers to tease apart here; the sherry influence is subtle, nicely balancing the oily, earthy peat; more salted caramel, dark chocolate Fruit & Nut bars, Eatmore, and Turtles; on the fruit side of things the cask has added Fig Newtons and date squares; more jujubes, bbq pineapple, and dried apricot lead into some juicier tropical fruits; the smoke is clean and elegant with a delicate whiff of lavender; late leather, tobacco, and spices.
Finish: long, elegant, and oily with more clean maritime smoke, salted caramel, and fading fruits; soothing and satisfying.
Comment: this is gorgeous, an old-style tropical Bowmore, balancing subtle peat smoke with a moderate sherry cask influence; I don't know how there were just 98 bottles left, but I am very grateful they were offered to us by the good folk at BBR; this is a contender to be in the Top 10 KWM Casks of All Time (Out of 160+)... it might even crack the top 5!
Producer Tasting Note
"Mid-90s Bowmore matured full term in a sherry butt, Scotch Whisky's answer to spiritual enlightenment. The nose opens with a opus of aromas from smoked pineapple, harbour rope, and dark chocolate leading to old leather, peaty hearths, and overripe mango. If you are able to overcome the rapture induced by the nose, the palate rewards with Bowmore’s trademark waves of classy peat smoke, grilled orange, are barbequed fruits and of course leading to the crescendo of tropicality only found these malts that still lean towards the old style. A pleasing reminder of how utterly absorbing cotch whisky can be.”
One of our favourite independent bottlers, Berry Bros. & Rudd is a stored London-based firm which has resided at #3 St. James Street, a stone's throw from St. James Palace, since 1698. Primarily a wine merchant, they have also played a prominent role in the Scotch whisky industry. In addition to founding the Cutty Sark Blend, and managing the Glenrothes brand for 30 years, BBR is also an independent bottler. We have long been impressed not only by the quality of their independent bottlings, but also their value!
Berry Bros. & Rudd in Their Own Words
With two Royal Warrants and more than 300 years of history, Berry Bros. & Rudd is Britain’s original wine and spirits merchant.
We can trace our history back to 1698, when an enterprising woman called the Widow Bourne started an “Italian grocer’s” at No.3 St James’s Street, selling tea, snuff, spices and the most fashionable drink of the day, coffee. The sign of the coffee mill still hangs outside our premises at No.3 today, in tribute to our roots.
In due course, our focus shifted to something a little bit stronger. As wine became important to the business, so too did spirits, and we started bottling casks under our label in the early 19th century, making us Britain’s oldest independent spirits bottler. Three centuries on, the family business continues to flourish, with its heart still very much at No.3.
While much has changed over the years, we are still owned and managed by members of the Berry and Rudd families, and we continue to supply the British Royal Family, as we have done since the reign of King George III. We still, from time to time, weigh customers on a giant set of coffee scales, a tradition which began in the 1760s, with Lord Byron, William Pitt and Beau Brummell among those who have had their weights recorded in our ledgers. Most importantly, we still believe that everything you should look for in a wine or spirit comes down to one simple question: “Is it good to drink?”
Bowmore Distillery is one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland and is the oldest on Islay that still exists, having been founded in 1779. It currently vies with Lagavulin to be the 2nd best-selling Islay Single Malt brand.
The Distillery itself lies within the town which shares its name and is right against the shoreline of Loch Indaal. Even though the distillery is on the coast, it can still be considered closest to the centre of Islay. The town of Bowmore only predates the distillery by less than two decades, and it was the first planned settlement in Scotland.
The town’s gridlike layout and construction were initiated in 1768 by Daniel Campbell the Younger, who was the owner of the Islay and part of Jura. He resided in the famous Islay House and planned the town of Bowmore to resettle residents from the village of Kilarrow. Kilarrow was situated close to Islay House, near what is now called Bridgend. It is said that Daniel the Younger felt that Kilarrow spoiled the view between Islay House and Loch Indaal. All that remains of the old village is a cemetery on Islay House property.
On the upside, Daniel the Younger did also build the now-famous Kilarrow Parish that is atop the hill in Bowmore. The church is famous for being entirely round so that it gives to corner for the devil to hide in. Bowmore and the Kilarrow Parish lay a little over 4km south of Bridgend and where the previous village existed. Currently, the town of Bowmore is populated by around 800 residents.
As for the distillery, Bowmore’s nearest neighbour is Bruichladdich, which is a 15-minute drive West along the coastal road A847 to the other side of Loch Indaal. Caol Ila Distillery is about a 20-minute drive to the East along the A846. If you head South from Bowmore the Port Ellen Maltings (and soon the rebuilt Port Ellen Distillery is about a 20-minute drive as well, and from there you can get to Laphroaig Distillery, Lagavulin and Ardbeg which all lie within 10 minutes drive from there.
Like Laphroaig, the Bowmore distillery is owned by parent company Beam Suntory. Also like Laphroaig, Bowmore is one of three distilleries on Islay to have its own on-site floor maltings and peat kilns, which are able to produce just about one-third of Bowmore’s needs for mashing and distillation.
Insert Peat Here: One of the Kilns At Bowmore Distillery
The 12 Year Old has been one of the core expressions in the Bowmore range for quite a while. Included in the core range are the no age statement Bowmore No.1, the 12 Year, 15 Year, 18 Year, and 25 Year Old. Various limited expressions have been available over the past few years, including the ongoing Vaults series, the Winemaker’s Trilogy. Currently, there are sparse independent bottlings available of Bowmore, and they tend to be expensive when they are released.