Today is the 12th anniversary of the blog. My first-ever booze review—posted on March 24, 2013—was of the Bowmore Legend. I’ve since marked every anniversary of the blog with a review of a Bowmore. Accordingly, here is a review of a Bowmore. This is in keeping as well with this month’s “young whisky” theme, being 10 years old. The secondary theme of the month’s reviews has turned out to be “throwback whisky”, as they’ve also all been reviews of whiskies released in or before 2013 (the year the blog launched—I note this in case you are even worse than me at arithmetic). Already reviewed this month: a 2013 release of the Ardbeg 10; the first release of the Kilkerran Work in Progress; and the Springbank 11, 1997, Madeira Cask. Here now is a review of the second release of the Bowmore Tempest (see here for my review of the first release). It was bottled in 2010 and, like the first batch, comprised whisky matured in first-fill bourbon casks. I can’t remember now how many batches followed this one but I do recall that the second batch was the last one to bear the name “Tempest” in the US. This on account of some brand infringement issue with an American wine. Subsequent batches were put out in the US under the name “Dorus Mor”. Anyway, I quite liked the first batch and am glad to finally be tasting this one.

Bowmore Tempest, Batch 2 (56%; first-fill bourbon casks; from my own bottle)

Nose: That very Bowmore mix of mineral peat, brine/sea-salt, pepper and fruit custard (with a bit of passionfruit in the mix). More cream with time. A few drops of water push the peat back and pull out more salt and sweet citrus.

Palate: Comes in with the peat leading the way but then the fruit expands and comes to the fore. Approachable enough at full strength; rich texture. On the second sip there’s a fair bit of lime peel and the pepper pops out earlier. Gets peatier as it goes. Ah, with a few drops of water the fruit all but explodes on the palate; the smoke is in the background.

Finish: Long. The fruit yields to the peppery peat which picks up ash as it heads to the close. Water keeps the fruit cocktail going for much longer.

Comments: A great anniversary whisky; wish I’d stashed more than one bottle back in the day. Is Bowmore still making stuff this good? Looking forward to drinking this down when I get back to Minnesota.

Rating: 89 points.