Right, bowmore 9 year old. Aged in sherry casks, bottled at 40%, chill filtered and undoubtedly coloured with caramel.

Neat, the nose is very smokey. Wood smoke, charcoal and also toffee pennies.
The palate is earthy and smokey; black liquorice and salty sea spray mellowed by the sherry sweetness with a peat smoke finish that seems abrupt but does leave a faint liquorice-like taste for a good while. Fairly young, it's appropriately punchy but the raw spirit is definitely toned down by the sherry cask maturation.

With a teaspoon of water, the nose remains relatively unchanged. Burnt wood and incense. Demerara sugar and something faintly of damp cardboard. Peat on the palate, like you've wiped your mouth on your gardening gloves after potting some plants. Wood smoke and ash from the end of a bonfire but sweet, like marshmallows burnt over a fire and you've eaten it straight from the pointy stick. Still a hint of spray like salted caramel.
Again the finish is short at the front of the tongue but leaves that liquorice aftertaste around the sides of the mouth.

Overall, this is great for the low price and it's a nice whisky. I think that not chill filtering it and not colouring it would improve it and it's a shame that they chose to add that. Cask, or at least higher strength may be better too, but I think the 40% abv works nicely. Room for improvement, yeah but worth it if you're interested.


Token picture...excuse the rubbish backdrop!