Bowmore 15 Year Old - Darkest

Worth asking, at what temperature did you taste this?

The bottle was at room temperature, though the whisky in the glass was hand-warmed.

I guess you're unlikely to change your mind, but if it helps your future experience any: the theme of my review for this was to drink cool, maybe 16C. (I think that was the temperature in Edinburgh that day... and every other day!) The Bowmore smoke should be able to come across as soft, and not-- well not as you describe....

I'm always willing to change my mind, provided I can achieve a different experience. Interesting suggestion. I haven't had much luck with cold whisky (I find warming amplifies the flavour) but I am definitely willing to try anything. I treat temperature as yet another user variable, like water.

It'll have to wait until I come across a dram Bowmore since I am not likely to pull the trigger on a bottle any time soon.

This triggered me to pull out my reserved sample of my first bottle (from 2+ years ago). First of all, yes, it was better colder-- and got worse warming in my hand. Secondly, I think that "barf" you describe is what I called cedar-- quite a strong cedar note that really comes back in the finish-- and... what also struck me, that I missed the first time, was the bit of iodine (I've learned to identify by trying more Islays). Not quite Laphroaig-levels of "barfy" iodine, but enough to "challenge" the sherry. Still, I really like the palate fruitiness as it combines with the dark notes.

Interesting experiment, and development in the whisky over time. I would have preferred cedar to vomitus, trust me. The vomitus note is unique to this whisky for me. I've never encountered it in another whisky before, even the heavily peaty and iodine-laden islays. It had a bizarre admixture of acrid caustic-sour-rot characteristics.