Bowmore 18 is Islay with its tie loosened, and it tastes like the island at a retirement party. This Bowmore 18 Year Old review is about a 43% malt that costs about £115, tastes of toffee, dried fruit and honey with a faint smoke, and is a soft, polished and deeply civilised dram.
I like it a great deal. It is smoother than most smoky whisky ever gets, and it earns real warmth from its age. The price is where I start to sigh, and I admit the whisky makes a decent case for itself.
Bowmore, founded in 1779 on the shore of Loch Indaal, is the oldest working distillery on Islay and has belonged to Suntory since 1994. The Bowmore distillery makes a medium-peated spirit that ages gracefully, and the 18 is the age where the smoke has softened most and the oak has learned its manners.
It is bottled at 43% with an eighteen-year age statement and is matured in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, though a sherry-oak version has appeared too, so check the label on your bottle. UK listings I found ranged from about £83 to £130, and a few of the cheaper ones looked old, so about £115 is a fair guide. Age statements versus NAS explains why a number like eighteen carries weight.
A buttered toffee apple left near a smouldering log, with a sliver of dark orange.
The nose is soft and rich, with toffee, dried fruit and honey, then a trace of smoke, a hint of vanilla and a faint floral note. It smells warm, mellow and quietly confident, with none of the harshness a younger smoky malt can bring.
On the palate it is smooth and layered, with fruit, spice and gentle smoke, then honey, a hint of cocoa and polished oak. The 43% gives it enough body, and the texture is silky and a little oily. The peat is a memory now, and the fruit is generous.
The finish is long and gentle, with oak, honey and a last wisp of peat. It is warm, clean and very satisfying, and it fades without ever getting bitter.
A few drops of water bring out the honey and soften the oak, and I think it is a little better for it. It also gets sweeter as it sits, and the smoke slips into the background. At 43% it takes only a splash, and a light hand is the right one.
Neat, in a good glass, with a little patience. It is a very good after-dinner whisky, and I would not dilute it beyond a drop or two. It is too good for an Old Fashioned, though a Manhattan made with it is a very good argument against my own rule.
It goes well with dark chocolate, a ripe pear and a long conversation. It is a very good gift for somebody who likes smoke and wants to see how smooth it can become.
At about £115 it scores 78. Bowmore 15 scores 74 at about £73, which is four points lower for £42 less. Lagavulin 16 scores 70 at about £78. Highland Park 12 scores 81 at about £43, three points better for £72 less. GlenDronach 12 scores 82 at about £50.
So the 18 is a very good whisky and a very expensive one. It beats the 15 by four points for £42 more, and the Highland Park and the GlenDronach both beat it for a fraction of the price. I would buy it as a present for myself on a day when the sums do not matter.
Peat smoke is a young whisky’s loudest feature. Over eighteen years in oak it fades, rounds off and merges with the fruit, and the result is a smoky whisky that does not feel smoky so much as seasoned. That is what has happened here, and it is the reason the 18 is more about sweetness than smoke.
If you want smoke, buy the twelve or a younger Islay. If you want to see the island at rest, with the fire banked down and the fruit left to talk, this is the bottle. It is a quieter pleasure than the label suggests, and a very real one.
Four more bottles, from the better buys to the younger siblings.
The fifteen-year-old, darker and four points lower for £42 less.
A honeyed, lightly smoky Orkney malt that scores three points higher for £72 less.
A heavily sherried Highland malt that scores four points higher for £65 less.
A dense, smoky Islay classic that scores eight points lower for £37 less.
Bowmore 18 is soft, honeyed, mellow and gently smoky, a lovely Islay malt in its quiet years. It is a great drink at a hard price, and the Highland Park 12 is the better value.
Caskable score: 78 out of 100.
Toffee, dried fruit, honey and a soft thread of smoke
Smooth and layered, with fruit, spice, gentle smoke and polished oak
Long and gentle, with oak, honey and a last wisp of peat
A soft, polished, gentle-smoke Islay malt that is lovely and expensive.
Thomas Grønvold is the founder of Caskable and a whisky enthusiast who believes the best way to learn about whisky is simply to drink it, compare it, and stay curious. From supermarket favourites to bottles from distilleries around the world, he writes about what he actually tastes and experiences, without pretending you need to be an expert to enjoy a good dram.
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