At this point, we’re fairly familiar with Bowmore. However we’ve sort of been going about it in reverse having started with the 17 year, and then near 6 years later (yikes), we did the 15 year. We’ve opted this time to go with the 12 year. We can therefore finally form a verdict on which Bowmore you should buy, and what (if anything) does time do?
Christmas time has come and gone once again, and once again a scotch has been gifted to the lounge. Sadly however it’s not a scotch as it’s been tainted by the wicked evil magic that is sherry. We’ve long been opponents of sherry aged scotches, but the recent trend of finishing in sherry has revived our hopes and can often be enjoyable. That is not the case here.
Because today’s Christmas eve we decided to review a gift we got ourselves. Don’t worry whiskey is still going to be every other Wednesday, today’s a one-off because this whiskey is rather special. It begins in a Glasgow whiskey bar. Staying over the Easter weekend – Nah JK we’re not a recipe blog. While Aultmore isn’t as well known as some other scotches it should be. It’s probably one of the great whiskeys out there, and if you can find it – a real gift.
We here have been long time fans of the Grand Macnish 12 year for being all the scotch your well decanter ever needs, at a price that’s competitive. It lets you feel good about buying some new single malt because it’s always there for you if it ends up being something like Jura. This is a new edition (much like the 15yr sherry) that’s aged in charred casks – and proves that maybe you should just leave things well alone.
This is normally the bit where we talk about how this relates to the regular version and what the distillery specific breed brings to the table. (But we’ve not actually done that yet – our bad). In fact, the only thing we’ve done that’s dealt with Caol Ila on this site is its inclusion into Johnnie Walker Green (which is defunct). But that’s okay.
So we’ve always been a bit apprehensive of the Fiddich, namely because while they deserve the store presence they often get and are by no measure have made a bad whiskey, they’ve always been – just slightly above average. It seems though just a few extra years of aging allows it to set itself apart though.
Once again a victory scotch from the duty-free store graces our doors. (It’s a victory because getting back home at 1 am after 14 hours of travel needs a drink). We have a special ‘town & year’ version of Glen Scotia, and sadly we don’t have a baseline with their malt to compare against as what we find here was less of a victory, and more of a loss at the end of a long day.
We originally tried this as the recent Whiskey America Day Special and knew we had to get it into the review banks. We then however totally forgot which version we gave an intial A- too, and picked up the 110 Proof for funsies. While we’re almost certain this is not the same dram, that A- rating may show up again in some form.
Not to be confused with the much rarer and much more expensive Mackinley’s special breed we have another contender in the whiskey space to the Shackleton name. This is sort of ‘inspired’ or in other words – stolen to sell. The look though is solid even if the product isn’t as solid.
Hey! Are you in the market for a shit blended scotch that’s trying to act like it’s not a plastic bottle bitch? Are you ready for the Evan Williams to the Jack Daniels of the Johnnie Walker Blended scotch world? Then look no further friends because once you were lost, now you are found. Although on second thought maybe looking further is a much better idea.
