Bowmore 30, Edition 2, Hunter Laing The Kinship, 085/507, 56.1% abv.

The Kinship series was started and selected by Jim McEwan to celebrate the construction of Hunter Laing's Ardnahoe distillery. Ardnahoe was a big thing because it was another "new" distillery on Islay with a popular cast of characters. The first releases included Ardbeg 26, Bowmore 25, Bunnahabhain 28, Caol Ila 33, Laphroaig 30, and Port Ellen 34 in 2017.

Nose: non-chlorine cleaning chemicals, floral, some sort of tropical fruit, mostly very dull unripened mango, unripened banana, and unripened papaya. With some time it converts to old tea (tea leaves that are stuck in a tea pot that has been refilled with hot water many times), mellowed old coffee grinds, rotting seaweed, light lavender. Very strange.

Palate: good body, initial palate is unripened tropical fruit, mid palate is old wet tea leaves with tropical fruit mixed in or I guess a cup of old fruit tea components, back palate has some fruity smoke. I guess the typical tropical fruit/vomit and soap/chalk elements are all there too. Very strange. Can't decide if it's vomit or pretentious tropical fruit mafia.

Finish: long, unripened mango and unripened papaya.

The nose was very very strange on this one and it tasted like a cocktail more than anything else. Not as potent as other Bowmore from that weird time. Although its a strange one, I have to admit I admire some parts to it. Is this what people mean when they say they like tropical Bowmore? Or tropical whiskies in general?

Grade: B+

Whiskyfun.com, Serge, sgp:643, 78 points
Scotch whisky, Dave Broom, 80

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

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