Last week I reviewed the Ardbeg Uigeadail for you. Tonight I'm reviewing a whisky which I didn't get to taste on Islay, the Bowmore Tempest Batch VI.
The Bowmore Tempest is a cask strength whisky which is blended in small batches. Each batch is crafted by Bowmore's (female!) master distiller. Each batch is slightly different from the previous one, and therefore, it is always an exciting moment when you drink the first one from a new batch.
I bought this whisky in a 5cl sample, before deciding on purchasing a bottle.
Tempest is always bottled at cask strength, and this batch comes in at 54.9% ABV. I've had a previous batch of Tempest, and at that time to me it appeared like the cask strength version of the Bowmore Small Batch
VISUAL
In the glass this whisky is light in colour. it does not have the threading which some other whiskies have in the glass. I was told that the degree of threading is due to the presence of certain micro-organisms during fermentation.
When you smell this whisky, you smell peat, but it's less in your face than some of the other Islay whiskies. Most of the other Islay distilleries acquire their malt from the Port Ellen Maltings, but Bowmore has it's own malting floors so that they have control over their entire product. Whereas the Ardbeg Uigeadail was peated at 60 ppm phenol, and their supernova comes in at 100ppm, the Bowmore Tempest has a much lighter 25ppm phenol content.
Besides peat, there is fruit in this whiskey, first quickly blow in the glass, in order to remove the alcohol vapour, and than smell it again. You will discover a rich palet of different exotic fruits, like coconut, banana and pineapple.
MOUTHFEEL
When you drink it, you can feel it burning it on the tip of your tongue.
This is a sign that it is a fairly young whiskey. On the bottle you can see that it is a 10 year old whisky. As whiskies get older, it stops burning at the tip of your tongue, and the impact is more on the side of your tongue. The 23 year old and, 25 year old I talked about have a completely different point of impact. Next time you drink an older whiskey stop and think about this and try to feel the sensation.
FLAVOUR
In your mouth you get some peat in the beginning, followed by some vanilla (courtesy of the first fill bourbon barrels it was matured on.) After the vanilla there is rock sugar and this gradually evolves into the exotic fruits which we smelled earlier on.
AFTERTASTE
The aftertaste starts off powerful. Mostly the fruits, combined with some caramel. It than quickly tapers off, leaving a lingering flavour which is pleasant and lasts long, but which is not overpowering. It is light enough not to interfere with the flavour of anything else you might wish to consume.
This whiskey is light enough to combine nicely with food. It would do wonderful with oysters (I had the best oysters of my life while on Islay)
It is a nice whiskey, personally I like it. Compared to the Uigeadail last week I prefer that one slightly more, but if I where to taste ten whiskies blindly, this one would almost surely come out amongst the top ones (see my much appreciated review of the Ardbeg Uigeadail (thanks @kyriacos) below)
https://steemit.com/food/@walkerlv/saturday-night-s-whisky-review-ardbeg-uigeadail
NAMESAKE AND HISTORY
Bowmore distillery is named for the capitol of Islay, the city of Bowmore, which is an English rendition of the Gaelic name Bogh Mor meaning "great sea reef".
The distillery was founded in 1779 making it the oldest distillery on Islay. This also makes it a pretender to the throne for the title of oldest distillery in Scotland, although the Glenturret distillery in the Highlands claims to have been founded in 1775.
During the second World War, Bowmore distillery was shut down, and it hosted RAF Coastal command. Some of the planes under this command where sailplanes which were lying on the now once again peaceful Loch Indaal.
Whereas these planes didn't take part in the battle of Britain, or didn't bomb Europe whilst preparing for the invasion, they flew west from Islay, where they did invaluable work in protecting the Atlantic convoys from German U boats.
The namesake of "Tempest" is obvious, Islay is a small island subjected to the brutal climate of the Atlantic, and subject to frequent storms. Therefore the whisky with it's stormy palate but it's light finish when it has passed is an ideal embodiment of this character. It is also a name which goes well with the batch approach. Like no two storms are identical, no two batches are identical.
If I visited Islay two months ago, than why didn't I drink this whisky while I was there you ask?
I participated there in a premium tasting, during which I tasted 4 top shelf bottles, most of which are outside my financial reach throughout the year. I also picked up lots of usefull tips on tasting, and nosing whiskies.
(During this tasting we were served The Bowmore Vault edition, The Bowmore Stillman Selection, The 23 year old Port matured and the 25 year old claret wine finish Feis Ile 2016, along with bourbon and sherry (to show the impact of the different types of casks) and we where also served fresh spirit straight from the stills, at a whopping 72% ABV, which was surprisingly smooth, but being an unmatured spirit, more remeniscent of Latin American spirits)
Having tasted the inaffordable (but absolutely great) stuff there, I am now back to the "affordable" Bowmore stuff.
And with that I bid you:
slàinte
