Bowmore 15 Year Old Mariner Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky (2006) 70cl
Bowmore 15 Year Old Mariner Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky (2006) 70cl
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.
Bowmore? What is it and why?
Firstly in our own words at Whisky Situation, the orange peel, bonfire peat is different to the Iodine medicinal nature of Laphroaig and milder than the harsh smokkiness of Ardbeg. We love all of them but Bowmore has a very different "je ne sais quoi" about it that is only understood if you have tried them all. This drink is difficult to appreciate as a beginner to whiskies.
Bowmore is located in the centre of Islay and occupies a central role in the island’s whiskies. The distillery has retained its own floor maltings which account for 40% of its needs and when mixed with malt from the mainland results in a medium peated spirit.
Its smoke, reminiscent of beach bonfires, mingles with a distinctly saline note, flowers, cereal, citrus and underneath a touch of tropical fruit. It is this character which, when matured in refill casks for a long period of time, becomes the primary aroma, the peat seemingly disappearing completely.
A significant percentage of the make is aged in ex-Sherry butts which take Bowmore off in another direction – one of dark fruits, chocolate, coffee, citrus and smoke. The extensive range picks and chooses between these extremes. A significant percentage of the distillery’s whisky is matured on the island, with the distillery’s No.1 Vaults being held to have the most extraordinary microclimate. This chill, damp environment – the vault is below the level of Loch Indaal and one wall makes up the town’s sea wall – is seen as ideal for long-term maturation.
There are claims that Bowmore’s distillery started operation in 1779, but there’s no evidence of whisky being made until a certain John Simpson took out a licence in 1816. It wouldn’t be until 1837 when the Glasgow blending firm, Wm & Jas. Mutter took over that it began to gain traction and reputation. In 1841, Windsor Castle requested a cask of Bowmore – this being a time when the English palate was considered too delicate (or Scotch too bold). As often happens, the distillery passed through a number of hands before in this case it was bought, in 1963, by broker Stanley P. Morrison. The Morrison era saw the start of what is recognised as a legendary period in Bowmore’s history – its mid-1960s bottlings are legendary.
The distillery was substantially modernised with an innovative heat recovery system not only cutting down on fuel bills but creating sufficient excess hot water to heat the town’s swimming pool. In 1989 the Japanese distiller Suntory bought a stake in the distillery and took full control in 1994, the year after the ground-breaking Black Bowmore was launched. This 100% Sherry-aged release was sold for what at the time was seen as the ludicrously inflated price of £100.
In 2014 Suntory bought Jim Beam which, from an Islay perspective, sees two of Islay’s most iconic single malts (Bowmore and Laphroaig) under the same ownership.
43% ABV
70cl
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