Bowmore 17 Year Old Review And Tasting Notes
The 17-year-old Bowmore is an old glory of the famous Islay distillery, a grouchy, pungent distillate full of ethereal notes and berries and with an edgy taste that we are no longer used to.
It is a rare, expensive, and difficult-to-find bottle that still divides the audience of single-malt enthusiasts today, in 2022. Those used to Bowmore’s old bottlings adore it and love all its roughness, hardness, and the fact that it is not a docile distillate.
Modernists find it too soapy, too bizarre, and unsettling, but it happens if you are used to the whiskeys Bowmore has produced over the past 30-20 years and have never tasted older bottles.
Be careful not to confuse it with the Bowmore 17 White Sands, a dram produced for airport duty-free shops, with which it has nothing in common.
We are here to give you a dispassionate judgment, and for this reason, we tell you that it is a glorious, bold bottle that must be contextualized. First of all, it should be left to rest in the glass for at least a couple of hours before drinking it.
It is not a glossy whisky. And if you already find Islay whiskeys too medicinal and aggressive, you won’t like this one at all.
Organoleptic characteristics of Bowmore 17
But judging it honestly, it is undeniable that it is a great whisky. Malt has always been appealing, and it’s not just because it tastes or looks like biscuits.
No, here he launches into an aromatic narrative of a very different depth. Berries, lavender, violets, burnt orange peel, and caramel mix with camphor and mint.
The taste spectrum is broad but sharp. It tickles with a disarming freshness and then rises to no end.
On the palate, it is dry, grumpy, and soaked in salt and peat. Smoke and malt duet at a distance, but in harmony. The oily sensation on the palate is contained, tasty, and framed by herbaceous flavors.
The sweetness of ripe fruit balances out all of these stinging sensations. Still, it doesn’t come apart, and the balance is on purposely shaky, with the orange peel still showing through. There is wood, but it is well integrated into the aromatic spectrum. Exquisite finish of coffee and peat.
If you want to put it into a single figure, consider a pirate. The Bowmore 17 is this. A Gascon with a sardonic smile peers and invites you to fight.
Don’t expect a comforting drink, but a saber challenge while musket balls hiss all around.
How is Bowmore 17 made?
Pure malt distillate. It was bottled in 2004 after aging for 17 years in ex-bourbon barrels.
Price
You can find it on some sites specializing in collectible spirits for 350 to 400 euros. a valid price that is not within everyone’s reach, but these are now unobtainable bottles that represent the liquid history of one of the most important distilleries in Scotland.