In the long and fabled history of Islay whiskies, producers tend to tout the age of their distilleries. The earlier they started making whisky, the prouder they are about it. However, there's only one distillery that can righteously say they were the first licensed distillery in Islay.

And that distillery is Bowmore. It was founded in 1779 on the Isle of Islay by a local merchant, John P. Simpson. It is the first ever licensed distillery on Islay, and the second licensed distillery in the whole of Scotland (Littlemill was the first). In the days of unlicensed backwoods distilling, however, local knowledge suggest that Bowmore's distilling started almost ten years earlier. 

Although the exact date is lost to history, the Simpson family sold their distillery over to Glaswegian twin brothers William and James Mutter in 1837 (Or thereabouts). Interestingly, the head of the Mutter family, James Mutter, also had the impressive title of Vice Consul for the Ottoman Empire, Portugal and Brazil.

Unfortunately, there was an economic depression 50 years after the Mutters acquired the whisky. Like in most times of economic depression, people didn't quite have an interest in the finer things in life such as whisky, and repeated monetary setbacks led to the Mutter family selling their distillery to one John Bell Sheriff of Campbeltown. For unknown reasons just a few years later in 1892, he too, sold the distillery to a consortium headed by Joseph Robert Holmes, who gave the distillery its name. 

In a rather odd twist, the very same James Bell Sherriff purchased Bowmore Distillery for the second time, and renamed it Sherriff's Bowmore Distillery.

During World War II, the distillery was used as an air force base and production at Bowmore ceased for a time. Deciding that winning the war against fascism outweighed the need for a good Scotch, RAF Coast Command commandeered the distillery between 1940 and 1943. Three squadrons would operate from the brewery, likely consisting of Sunderland flying boats launched from Loch Indaal on anti-submarine sorties.

Fast forward a decade or two, where the distillery changed hands a couple of times, and underwent minor restructuring, the distillery is now owned by Japanese distiller Suntory. Despite its owners playing what was essentially ping-pong with its grounds throughout the years, one cannot deny that Bowmore has an impressive record.

The Bowmore 1980 Queen's Cask

In fact, Bowmore also had the honor of being the first Scotch whisky distillery England's Queen Elizabeth II ever visited. After being presented with her own cask, bottles from this cask were later sold to raise money for local charities.

Bowmore can also proudly say they released the oldest Islay single malt ever. Matured in the No.1 Vaults for 54 years, only 12 bottles of the Bowmore 1957 exist. The No. 1 bottle was actually bought by an anonymous buyer in the Americas for a whopping USD$100,000 in 2012. The distillery promised that all net proceeds would be donated to five Scottish charities.

Like many Scottish distilleries with deep roots, there are always tales of innovation in their founding years. The Mutter family would be responsible for a fair bit of them. One such change they made was to gain possession of a small steam ironclad to import barley and coal from the mainland, and to export the whisky to Glasgow.

Years on, Bowmore continues to respect traditional styles of whisky-making, at least to the best of their abilities. The distillery sources as much barley as possible from on the island of Islay, but insufficient quantities to satisfy the distillery's demand also calls for foreign imports.

Bowmore's Malting floor. (Image Source: Words of Whisky)

Unlike most distilleries, Bowmore retains a traditional floor malting in its very own malting barn, where barley is soaked in the waters of the nearby River Laggan for 27 hours before the process begins. But this too limits production, and Bowmore has increasingly begun to import already-malted malt to meet demands.

Nevertheless, Bowmore has consistently surprised and enthralled with its offerings. Today, we get stuck into three of the distillery's core offerings: The 12, 15 and 18 years.

Let's get started.

Bowmore 12 Year Old - Review

Tasting Notes

Colour: Amber / Copper.

Nose: Soft and gentle smokiness, more of a woodsy smokiness, dotted with some light bits of yellow fruit, sweet lemons, pineapples, also some oranges. Some florals too in the form of shrubbery that’s flowering. There’s a slight hit of sea spray, albeit pretty soft.

Palate: More smoky and ashy here, sweet ash, with the smokiness being a pretty rounded and cohesive waft. Backed up by honey, lemon sherbet, orange blossoms, vanilla cream. It’s sweeter here and fairly rich with a big citrusy tone. The Sherry notes come through a second later with some leather and cooked plums, alittle bit of milk chocolate too.

Finish: The sweet ash persists, as do the stewed plums and vanilla cream, outlined by some of that orange peel and orange blossom. Pretty long finish.

My Thoughts

This was pretty rich, rounded and tasty with really creamy notes of confectionaries coming through, and even the ash came through rather sweet. That said, the traditional Islay style of medicinal peatiness seems to be missing here - for better or for worse, depending on whether you’re into that herbaceous bitterness. For me, that was a plus. The only part of the Bowmore 12 Year Old that came across being classically Islay was the persistent note of citrus.

All in I’d say this didn’t taste typically Islay nor did it feel distinctively Bowmore, but it definitely was tasty on its own if we’re discarding identity markers here. The Bourbon and Sherry cask influence was very well expressed here and integrated with the underlying whisky, and came through to give a surprising amount of complexity and harmony. This would work very well as quite a crowd pleaser.

Bowmore 15 Year Old - Review 

Tasting Notes

Colour: Amber / Copper.

Nose: It starts off with that sweet smoke and grilled oranges, though this time we’re getting a little more of that Islay character. The sea spray, oyster shells, kombu seaweed, iodine, that’s all coming through but in a pretty well-paced manner that isn’t overwhelming. It’s like standing off a fishing pier after the rain. To that end, there’s this note of wet grass and wet pine forest floors. Those form the top notes, and at the back there’s more on mulled wine with oranges stewed in, left out wine, candied ginger, a little bit of dark chocolate, brown sugar, crushed almonds, stewed plums, and also some eucalyptus.

Palate: Pretty rich here, the peat hits first, here it’s alittle more intense and concentrated, almost tar like, alongside wine gummies, blackberries, lingonberry jam, with a pretty pronounced herbal note of eucalyptus and more of that wet grass and wet pine. There’s some milk chocolate into the finish, candied ginger, and some orangettes.

Finish: A little bit of hay, candied ginger, more of that stewed plums, mulled wine sweetness, some hits of tar. It’s got a pretty minty finish, along with some chewing tobacco.

My Thoughts

Surprisingly, this has alot going on - one thing is for certain though, that signature Islay flavours are really coming through here. What is really good about how the Bowmore 15 Year Old expresses that is that it sort of keeps the broad flavour notes but withholds the medicinal bitterness or herbaceousness that tends to be that love-it-or-hate-it bit about Islay whiskies - which is to say, this is still really approachable. On top of that, the Sherry comes through even more here, with more richness and lots of those sweeter stewed fruits and heavier, more decadent chocolates, brown sugar, candied ginger, orangettes.

If there was one bone I had to pick, it would be that wet grass note that I can’t quite get behind, and that it could be alittle more cohesive with all that’s going on. Though all in all, it’s got a really nice fuller body, really smooth, bold, lots going on, and tends towards the richer side, which makes it a really solid whisky.

Bowmore 18 Years Old - Review

Tasting Notes: 

Colour: Dark Amber, Mahogany.

Nose: Light smokiness here, still tending towards the sweeter side, it’s giving BBQ glazed meats, teriyaki perhaps, or a honey BBQ glaze with that smokiness. There’s a prominently sweeter and denser layer of chocolate cake, raisins, figs, berry jam, some vanilla cream. A little bit of leather, espresso, hazelnut praline, tobacco leaves, with just a slight coastal note to it of light sea spray and some chalk.

Palate: It’s richer in flavour although also thinner, with a rush of smoke that comes through first, still sweet, almost like charcoal and wood cinders, just a little bit plasticky, with some saltiness in there too. This is backed up by more honey, vanilla cream, with a base layer of Christmas cake, tobacco leaves, leather, orangettes, raisins, stewed plums, figs, prunes, cherry jam, milk chocolate, cocoa powder, espresso cake. It’s quite rich and almost stickier and sweeter, despite the thinner texture.

Finish: The sweet ash carries over, more of that sea spray here, still with the honey, brown sugar, cooked plums, raisins, cherries, some caramel and toffee, orange peels outlining the finish. As the sweetness recedes, the herbaceous Islay notes become more present - some iodine, oyster shells, kombu seaweed, wet moss, little bit of rubber. Lingering sweetness of oranges, cherries and some caramel.

My Thoughts

The PX cask influence here is pretty intense - it’s given it a massive base layer of darker, denser, stickier and sweeter Sherry notes, which I could see how it’s boldness and sweetness might make it more appealing, but as a combined entity, it does feel like a lot is going on. I do certainly like the richness, although I would’ve preferred for a fuller body on the palate, but it did bring forth all these really decadent notes that are big, bold, muscular, and just very forward - you just can’t miss it. It’s also combined with the smokiness to give this rather appetising BBQ quality on the nose.

All that said, the Islay notes here are tucked way back into the finish and really only come through at the end when the sweetness recedes - which does at times feel like the PX cask is this massive, thick coat over the underlying whisky itself. I will say though that there are no subtleties here - the flavours are big and for that I think it’s got alot of presence and I think more seasoned drinkers might find this more up their alley.

Lok Bing Hong A budding journalist that loves experiencing new things and telling people's stories. I have 30 seconds of coherence a day. I do not decide when they come. They are not consecutive.