Bowmore 15 Year Old Mariner (screenprinted presentation 2000)

The Bowmore Mariner that I am tasting now comes from a bottle with the screenprinted label. It is a 15 Year Old. It's a vatting of 80% sherry casks and 20% bourbon casks and quite different from the current Bowmore 15 that you can still find in the duty free shops.

The nose is sweet with oranges, toffee, a hint of ashes, but a lot of lavender and candle wax. Damn, this is very soapy. Connoisseurs tend to call this FWP, an acronym for the somewhat humiliating 'French Whore Perfume'. Ouch!

He's quite creamy and peaty on the palate, but again the perfume is disturbing. Yikes! You can taste the Islay elements, but this whisky is obviously flawed.

The finish is short and sharp and leaves you with the need to rinse your mouth immediately. Pity!

This Bowmore Mariner was distilled during the '80s and bottled around 2000. If you know a bit of the history of Bowmore, you'll know that this was a period in which the Japanese owners put a lot of pressure on the distillery to create more ouput. That has damaged the spirit beyond repair.

Find where to buy Bowmore whisky