Bowmore The Devil's Casks III - Double The Devil

Unlike the previous Devil's Cask releases, this has no age statement. It's still non-chill-filtered though, and fully matured in first-fill sherry casks, Oloroso and - for this third and final release only - Pedro Ximenez casks as well. This sample comes from Pamela Singh.

The colour is a deep reddish copper. On the nose the peat is barely there, replaced by rich sherry, rum raisin, dates, wet leather, damp earth, brine and rich umami. Like the Tempest, maltier with water. Deep and savoury but could use a bit more smoke to balance things out.

On the palate those rich dark fruits return, with coffee cake, blood orange, dark salumi, salted dark chocolate and mocha. Extremely meaty - and only slightly peaty. Water brings out more spice. This is peat and sherry done right.

The finish is long and developing with strong dark coffee, brine, chocolate fudge and bay leaves. Despite a few flaws, this is rich and extremely satisfying - my favourite of the three I've tasted tonight (but by a close margin). The 14 year old has more citrus; the 10 year old more peat; and this one, more rich, savoury sherry. It's very instructive to find, in all three, the classic Bowmore notes of peat, brine and tropical fruits fighting against the cask influence (especially in the Devil's Cask). All in all, though, this was a symphony well worth staying up late for.

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