Oh Dear ! ..... what's wrong with Bowmore ?

......... A trip from Kennacraig across the sound of Jura to either Port Ellen or Port Askaig via the Calmac Ferry will find you on the ever-so-green-and-peaty Isle of Islay, one of the wettest places in the world in which to have a hang-over, and here you will find Ardbeg, Bowmore, Bruichladdich, Bunnahabhain, Caol Ila, Kilchoman, Lagavulin, and Laphroaig Distilleries.
These eight distilleries are the stalwarts of the peat influenced whisky scene, although it is worth adding that some are very peaty and some gently peaty.

All these whiskies are well worth sampling if you wish to know more about Scotch Whisky and generally want to improve your quality of life.

But for this blog-slot, I am going to bump on a little bit about Bowmore as I have recently reviewed my Islay whisky scores in my extensive archives and find that over the last five years Bowmore whiskies have rated the poorest and most disappointing. Why?

A visit to Bowmore Distillery in Bowmore Village down on the banks of Loch Indaal will reveal an immaculate 'fairy tale' distillery of white-washed splendour, ..........yes, it really looks the part.
It offers frequent guided tours where, like all the other distillery tours they will smile sweetly whilst gabbing on about the Angel's share and evaporation and stuff!, (funny how they never mention the Devil's share or the TAX SHARE, which is more than the angel's and Devil's put together) followed by a brightly lit shop selling their wares of tartan stuff, biscuit stuff, and whisky stuff, e.t.c. The whisky looks lovely with new seagull-free labels and the perma-glow of E150 (caramel colour) plus the crystal clear appearance that comes with a Chill-filter attack! (well who wants 'mist' in their whisky ? ..... well I do actually, it's a good sign of quality.)

In many ways Bowmore fits the mould of a classic Scottish Distillery with it's highly collectible and expensive old and commemorative whiskies from the 60's to 80's and lets not forget the now over-rated Black Bowmore, (Loch Dhu for rich people).
Yes, even amongst the other Islay malts, Bowmore has a cache with whisky drinkers which it trades on ruthlessly, so it is a bit distressing when tasting the Legend, 12 y.o. or 15 y.o. to discover how raw and blunt they are.
You don't get that wonderful chocolaty peat-soft, integrated complexity you should be expecting, but a grainy, peat-raw, ambiguous mush.
That's a shame but why is this the case ?

There could a simple answer, and it is the pursuit of cheaper Branding over costly Crafting that is the desire of most Distillery Owners as they perpetually review their "margins" by cutting costs of production and increasing budgets for marketing in an effort to generate higher profit. Still through-puts are speeded up, wider cuts taken from the spirit stills and poor quality/exhausted barrels are increasingly used for maturation, ...... and eventually this shows in the product itself, thus the addition of E150 and chill-filtration takes place to achieve the same consistency and 'reliability' as in Blended Whisky, except, of course blended whisky is mainly mixed with ice and soda/lemonade/coke, a single malt is NOT, and that's why we, the punters, pay double the price for a bottle of Malt, ............ we want the QUALITY, ............ not the CONCEPT.

If Bowmore used the Bruichladdich model for production, the intrinsic quality of the whisky would improve immediately. ......... but for the moment, the Whisky Industry mandarins know best, not the customer, although that may change, and sooner than expected.


P.S. Do you remember Bowmore's "Smoke on the Water" Campaign ?
......... Correct, I don't remember much about it either.

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The Mission Statement (well we all have them !)

For the past eight years I have immersed myself in whisky of all shapes and sizes, pouring, sniffing, tasting, and usually enjoying the glorious amber nectar. The majority of the thousand-odds whiskies I've tasted have been rewarding in a range between 'nice' to 'incredible', with the vast majority being worthwhile.
A few have not been so good, some (only a few fortunately) have been poor, well actually rotten, and I mean simply so bad that to have paid money for the experience has been a sore one. Yes, there are some whiskies out there that should never have been bottled, and this continues to be the situation now.
Independant bottlers in particular should take note of this.

So a bit more about my provenance concerning whisky, I am a member of Glasgow's Whisky Club, the most prominent and welcoming Whisky Club in Scotland, and in which I am a committee member holding the title of Club C.R. (more about that later).
Importantly, the Club is a good resource for people new to whisky to find out more, lots more, such is the wide experience of our regular members, who include Industry professionals and some very articulate experienced connoisseurs.

I was the first Scotsman to attend the Bruichladdich Academy in May 2004, and although I thought it rather expensive, the experience was worth it !! catching this 'modest' Distillery just at the moment where the good folk of Loch Indaal had realised that the hard graft of reopening the Distillery was done, and they were succeeding. But more about Bruichladdich later !!!!

I have contributed several articles to the Malt Maniacs web site including the now notorious interview with Martin Green the Whisky Consultant. I had no idea that there would be such a stooshie...........

In 2008, I attended the world's first evening class in Whisky, conducted by the immensely knowledgeable John Lamond (best evening class I ever attended.) and am all lined up for his new Advanced Whisky Course due to start around Easter time at the College of Commerce in Glasgow.

Like many whisky buffs I have a collection, some as an investment (and why not?) but most as a reserve for later on when I can open a now unattainable bottle and have a laugh at how the price has rocketed over the 5, 10, 15, years since I bought it. .......... hooray! .... and more about that later.

And finally I have hundreds of detailed tasting notes on a remarkable range of whiskies, rums, cigars and assorted stuff! which along with my experience and lack of respect for flannel and dogma will hopefully make for an interesting Blog-read.

And the mission of this Blogg is to inform and entertain about the whisky stuff.........

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A Brief Introduction.

My name is ralf,
in the year 2000 my dad gave me a bottle of whisky as a present, just a wee thank-you for
my taking him in the car down to Wemyss Bay and over on the Calmac ferry to the Isle of Bute to visit Mount Stewart, followed by a return trip via Colintraive and Inverary back down Loch Lomond to Glasgow.
As I remember, it was an excellent day out and even the sun was shining which is a rare event in any Scottish summer. As a dark rum and tonic drinker, the whisky was, well, ............ a demanding experience !!! but shortly after he left me to return to the Isle Of Man, I had no choice but to drink the whisky as I had run out of rum. The whisky and tonic tasted fine ! till I ran out of tonic and had no choice but to finish the whisky with water, and as the level in the bottle went down, less and less water.
On finishing the whisky, I stared at the empty bottle of 12 y.o. Bunnahabhain and the next day at the local
supermarket, passed on by the rum and the tonic and instead bought my first bottle of Single Malt.
The Bunnahabhain lasted a week, and then I bought 6 varied single Malts, ............... and now it all
seems such a long time ago.

How time flies !


This is my Blog principally about whisky, but occasionally about some other, related things.