Bowmore 16 Year Old 1995 Silver Seal

Max Righi – whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a few times – is de man behind the Italian bottler Silver Seal. He is considered to be the successor of Sesante. Those are big shoes to fill! But he does it well. I have already tried quite a few lovely malts from Silver Seal such as a great Ardbeg, Glen Keith, Littlemill and Macallan. Unfortunately also an ugly Auchentoshan, but people will that you that’s not Max’s but the whisky’s fault. Anyway, today I will try a Bowmore from 1995 that was bottled at cask strength after a maturation of 16 years. While the cask type is not mentioned, I presume is a sherry cask, judging by the color.

Oh, my! Lovely old school nose (while this should not be old school at all!) with a metallic note as if poured from a tin can. Sniffing tobacco, walnuts, toffee apples, apricot pastry, freshly polished leather, furniture polish and mandarin. Out-stand-ing!

Yes, bingo! What a whisky! Lime peel, blood oranges, chewing tobacco, parsely, peat and tar. The balance between the sweet and maritime notes is simply grand. The peat is unmistakable and delivers a huge smokiness. A salty edge makes it picture perfect.

The finish is marvelous: bittersweet with smoke and lots of peat and tobacco.

A liquid party if ever there was one. But by now you’ll have to fork over more than 300 EUR and that seems a bit much, right?

Find where to buy Bowmore whisky