Bowmore used to be regarded in some quarters as piggy-in-the-middle; a bit of a compromise between the two extremes of the Islay tastes, but certainly in recent years this seems to me to be rather unfair. I’ve enjoyed it on a number of occasions, particularly since a visit to Islay some years ago, and Mike [...]
Archive for the ‘islay whisky’ Category
No longer a compromise - Bowmore
July 30th, 2008 
Bill 
Posted in bowmore distillery, islay whisky, whisky, whisky review 
Tags: bowmore, islay, malt whisky 
No Comments »Rediscovering a class act - Lagavulin
June 10th, 2008 Bill I remember, many years ago, trying Lagavulin a few weeks after finding Laphroaig too medicinal for my young palate, and quite liking it. However for some reason our paths have hardly ever crossed since then. Memory and changing tastes often play tricks so I was interested to see what my opinions of it would be [...]
Whisky Dreams - book review
May 12th, 2008 Bill No whisky enthusiast needs to be told about Islay, the island that is so steeped in our favourite spirit that it seems to run in the very blood of the inhabitants. Equally we are all aware of the sad fate of many of Scotland’s famous old distilleries; mothballed or closed forever due to the boom [...]
Posted in bruichladdich distillery, islay whisky, whisky Tags: book review, bruichladdich, islaly whisky, malt whisky 1 Comment »Old Unpronounceable - Bunnahabhain
April 7th, 2008 Bill Less well known than some of the other Islay malts, probably because of the intimidating (to some) Gaelic name as much as the distinctive taste. The labelling is redolent of the sea; an ever present feature of Islay life. This one I tasted in an Edinburgh bar, a good one. The barman seemed surprised to [...]
Laphroaig - still challenging after all these years?
March 20th, 2008 Bill I mentioned in an earlier post that I had been exposed to a mature Laphroaig at way too tender an age when my taste buds were incapable of appreciating it. Since then I’ve only rarely gone back to this revered Islay malt and never in a suitable environment where I could observe it in peace [...]
Ardbeg - the finest malt whisky in the world?
February 28th, 2008 Bill Given that one respected whisky writer considers this distillery’s produce to be so good that he has to artificially handicap it in his tasting scores, this one has a lot to live up to.
Ardbeg 10 year old, 46%
A new bottle; always interesting to open a bottle for the first time and get the first impression. [...]