Bowmore 15 Year Old Mariner Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky (2009) Travel Retail Exclusive 1 Litre

Bowmore 15 Year Old Mariner (2009) Travel Retail Exclusive 1 Litre

The Bowmore Mariner shows the old Islay style. It is smoky, intense and strong, but the finish is pretty smooth.

Bowmore Mariner was a travel retail release and combines both ex-bourbon casks and sherry butts. It’s 15 years of age, bottled at 43% and you get a whole litre of it to play with. The marketing text spends some time playing up the sea-based aspects of Bowmore – and well, with a name like Mariner, this is to be expected. So let’s take a look just how salty and maritime this Bowmore really is.

Nose: Medium in intensity combining both sweet but gentle smoke with a healthy dose of coastal air and ozone. Freshening with both citrus and stone fruits such as apricot, and with a vein of sugariness running through the whole aroma. Part briny, part forest-like with notes of ferns and pines in amongst the more overtly seaside overtones of salt and very mild iodine.

Taste: On the one hand oily and on the other, almost strangely sandy and chalky. Odd. Again the salinity is very present and is backed up with an increased presence of fruit – on the one hand fresh and ripe and on the other sour – I want to say sour cherries, but that’s too neat a fit. Sweet again, this time from toffee and caramel. There’s a fairly huge dose of cask spice here which leads to quite a bitter and astringent experience.

Finish: Medium, salty, and pleasantly astringent, but to my palate extremely bitter, jarringly so in fact.


Bowmore Mariner is a mixed voyage. It delivers on the sea salt promised with a really nice bite appreciable across the nose, taste and finish. It likewise manages to merge smoky coastal notes with some pleasant fruitiness and sweetness.

TASTING NOTES

Nose: Delicious dark chocolate, sun-dried fruits and a tell-tale wisp of Islay smoke.

Taste: Wonderful cedar wood and rich treacle toffee.

Finish: The robust and complex finish with a hint of sherry tannin.

43% ABV

100cl

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