Bowmore 30 Years Old Sea dragon 43% NV

Distileerderij	Bowmore
Bottelaar	OB
Serie	Sea Dragon
Gebotteld voor	X
Gedistilleerd op	NV
Gebotteld	NV
Land	Schotland
Streek	Islay
Leeftijd	30
Cask Type	X
Vatnummer	X
Alcohol percentage	43
Inhoud	0,70
Conditie	In originele verpakking
Etiket	Perfect
Voorraad	0
Inhoud	0,70
Etiket	Perfect
Voorraad	1

Professionele reviews

Serge Valentin (91)

Colour: light amber.

Nose: tropical fruits again, but slightly oxidised ones. No so demonstrative, but still impressive – and very elegant and refined. Lots of citrus, but some apricot and melon. Whiffs of smoke, getting coastal.

Mouth: quite creamy and coating, with lots of fruit liqueurs, some quince jelly, kiwi juice, lemon seeds. Some lemon zest that sort of structures the whole. Very nice bitterness. Slightly watery, but in a nice way, especially the finish.

This one would have needed 3% more alcohol; it lacks just a little oomph.

BOW (90)

1577 Grams

Whiskyfun:

Second tasting
Sure I’ve tried this famous 30 before but those very early tasting notes had been very unsatisfactory. What’s more, there had been several batches, and some were even having various white numbers in the bottom of the bottles. The quality used to vary as well, so we have the best of excuses to try this baby again (but from a different batch!) By the way, it seems that there's a new Sea Dragon for China. 888 bottles, of course, that's what we call unbridled creativity.

Colour: deep gold.

Nose: these Bowmores are never easy at first nosing, as the taster would find whiffs of bitter earth and some excessive mushrooms, which is exactly what happens here. Bowmore always needed to breathe, you couldn’t even touch a new bottle before you had kept it open for a few days. But then, you were in for a treat! In this very case, we find the expected mangos, notes of concrete, bergamots, some kind of mentholated oysters (ideas ideas), touches of fennel seeds, celery, pu-erh, and certainly a little chalk. Did the latter come from the decanter? Let’s see…

Mouth: quite an experience. Mangos and figs at first and as jams, then rather citrus and earth, some smoked fish, a little pipe tobacco, the same sweeter side that was to be found in the Black Bowmores (blackberry jam, old PX), then rather pomegranate and cranberry juice. In truth it’s not totally ‘wow’, perhaps decanter fatigue? Always beware of decanters in general, they don’t always keep well. But do anybody still open them anyway?

Finish: medum and even a little short, but very savoury now. Maggi.

Comments: fantastic old Bowmore, it’s just a little fragile. Not much smoke to be found, by the way. Still worth a very high score.