Alright, let’s close the month out with a week of single malt whiskies. And as the blog’s 11th anniversary was yesterday, let’s start with a Bowmore. [My first-ever review was of the lowly Bowmore Legend, and so I’ve marked every anniversary with a Bowmore review.] This is the second release of Bowmore’s Vault Edition and hit the market back in 2019. The Vault series was apparently intended to showcase different aspects of Bowmore’s character—I’m not sure if it’s still on the go—and the second edition emphasized peat smoke. It was matured in bourbon and then sherry casks. No word on age but the price on release was £70. This was down from the first edition’s original asking price of £100, which I guess might mean that even in the inflated market of recent years, drinkers are not uncritically buying up every official release from a name distillery no matter what ludicrous price is being asked for them. That said, I’ve no idea what the prices asked for later releases were. Let’s see if I like this one more than the Legend all those years ago.
Bowmore Vault Edition, Second Release (50.1%; from a bottle split)
Nose: A sweet arrival with orange peel, charred pineapple, apricot jam and some peach; smoke swirls all around it (mildly phenolic, quite a lot of char). As it sits, there’s a fair bit of grilled, fatty pork and some hoisin sauce and then the Bowmore florals begin to poke through. With more time there’s some toffee. A few drops of water and, alas, the raw oak emerges here as well (like a new box of pencils).
Palate: Ashy smoke to start and then there’s a big burst of raw oak; the florals come out strong as I swallow, led by the lavender. Decent drinking strength and texture. More of that raw oak again on the second sip, pushing aside both the smoke and the more delicate fruit and flowers. As it sits the ashy smoke picks up some savoury gunpowder and the oak gets more bitter. Okay, let’s see if water will salvage this. Not really. It gets sweeter but the bitter oak is still there, mixed in now with some talcum powder.
Finish: Long. The ashy smoke is the lead note here; some tropical fruit and some lavender as it fades. With time the oak lingers into the finish as well, and it’s more bitter and extractive here too. More of the florals here with water but also that talcum powder.
Comments: I really liked the nose and had great hopes for this after the first few sniffs. Alas, that raw oak on the palate derailed that, dominating all the other stuff that I so like in Bowmore. Still, I do like it more than the Legend (which, of course, had retailed for less than $30 back in the day).
Rating: 82 points.