Bowmore distillery

What was it like working back here in the old days? It was brilliant, it was lovely, and it's the same, Islay's the same, we don't want Islay to change, you know, I haven't seen a lot of big, big changes, you know, there's some, an old computer, and about the parts of the distillery, but otherwise, you know, It hasn't changed much, and we're still making the whisky the same way as we did when we first started, and the people that showed us before we came here.

So we're just carrying on the same as what they had shown us, and that's probably, you're going back maybe over 100 years, just doing the same.

Now, many of the legendary Bowmores, including the recent Trilogy series, came out of warehouse number one, down by the water and down by the seawall.

What makes that warehouse so special for Aging Whiskies?

Well, it's beside the sea.

There have been some really, really good ones that have come out.

Um, but Bowmore for me or Bowmore is something that, um, I've been fortunate enough to do a tasting of, of old Bowmore bottlings, which were really, really interesting.

Um, But more recently, the modern stuff hasn't resonated with me at all.

So I'm going to go with Ardbeg because I do like the spirit a lot.

But then on the flip of that right now, are we going through the Bo Mohr? Bourbon, 20.

The Bowmore Bourbon phase.

Yeah, because there's a Bowmore 20 in Bourbon from the Islay at 46%.

We've did Sonny Charles, Sonny's 22.

Whiskey Craft, Bowmore 22.

Fantastic.

We're all my whiskeys, yeah.

golden age.

It was founded by Dr. George G. Moore in 2011, but he tragically passed away suddenly in 2013.

But his wife, Angela, and their son took over the operation and brought in Harry Cockburn, the former distillery manager at Bowmore, another big name in the scotch world-

Yeah

... and Dr. Jim Swan, a world-renowned maturation expert.

have a...

I'm going to catch up with Islay as a region because there's two whiskeys there, two distilleries there for me, Kalila and Bowmore.

Kalila just because I like it, full bore because it was really it was really impactful in my thinking of that whole dark fruit things you know when I write back in 2015 I think what is what is this spirit going to be and it's like you know you kind of ration your brains really you know staying at this blank sheet day by racking your brains and think so the apples, pears, bananas I'm kind of like it's out there isn't it and it's like we need to we need to have something and then i was listening to people talking about bull moore and talking about the old 60s 70s bull moore and then it changed and it lost the dark fruit flavor and they're like oh okay

okay

Oh, that's nice.

Thanks for sharing those.

I think, so we've got Springbank, Campbelltown, Bowmore and Kalila for Islay.

Five.

Of course.

So peated whiskeys are the ones that they're made, like we were describing at Bowmore, in a kiln.

They'll be burning the peat under it.

All the smoke comes up into this almost like sieve-like layer and the phenols and smoke from that fire cling to the grains the whole way through.

It's, it's, it's literally the, the color is coming from that cask.

Well, it's funny you, you say that because, um, uh, quite a while back, uh, Charlie and I did a whole documentary series for Bowmore on, on, uh, wood policy.

Yeah.

And we, and we went to Jerez and we went to Kentucky and, and all over Scotland, and we spent quite a few days in, uh, the vaults sampling straight out of the cask.

Just the initial reaction to really see and explore what that whisky is all about.

Because if you're... having friends around, you're sure to say, well, you're pouring a 25-year-old Dalmore or a Bunnahabon or what have you, or a Bowmore.

You know, there are many different styles of whiskey, so your expectations should be there already before you even taste it and swallow it.

A wee Bunnahabon here.