Bowmore 21 (circa 1996)
Added on Sunday, Nov 14, 2010 at 01:37 PM
  Bottler: OB
  Age: 21 yrs Type: Scotch
  Vintage: N/A Subtype: Single Malt
  ABV: 43.00 % Region: Islay
  Price: N/A Availability: Collectors Only
Member Ratings and Notes
Sku
 
Nose:  Egads!  That is awful.  Notes of gasoline and rotting garbage.  This is a scent I associate with bad sherry wood.  Clearly a flaw, no one could want this to smell this way.

It recovers a bit on the palate with some smoke and maple syrup, but it's just hard to get over that initial nose.  

Yuck!  
Chris
 
N:  Um, whoa, something funky going on here.   Goes from rotten to farty.  Big-time sulfur.   
P: There's nothing so wrong with the palate, but its hard to enjoy even the tastiest malt in a Porta John.
F: Can someone pass the TP?  
Really surprised an OB would be released like this. 
Andy
 
N:  To call this an abomination is to do the snowman an injustice.  I would never attribute this nose to a sherry cask.  I would attribute it to the Charlie Sheen hooker who got stuffed into the sherry cask, puked, died, was left alone a few months (get the bacteria working) and then filled with a substandard whisky and urine.  This was agressively bad.  Not an accident.  Someone did this to me on purpose.  May he rot in a bog somewhere.  F- on the nose
 
P:  Easily beats the nose (don't breathe though) .  Musty closet with mothballs and a fart.

This is the new censure malt! 
Adam
 

I smell decay, flatulence, some gasoline, and sweaty feet in old shoes. Sewer gas. Very bad. Yuck. I do not want to drink this...

 

Yet I did. There's not much in the palate, except the stink that wafts into my nostrils. Whatever about the finish, who cares.

 

Yeah, you can drink it, but why would you?

 
Ian
 

Nose:  Moldy, Musty, reminiscent of a morning pee after a long night of boozing.  Suffice to say tis' not good!  Smells like a bad egg.  There is a twinge of smoky peat to it - but like if you peed on a campfire.

Palate:  The human olfactory sensory system is there to warn us - and I still drank this, not sure why... peer pressure? Lunacy?Curiosity?  No peat to note on the tongue, lemony, medicinal, and just gross.

Finish:  Tangy and please give me some water to wash this taste out of my mouth

 

I don't think that any distillery, especially one like Bowmore would bottle stuff like this as it currently is - I don't think they would even sell it to a blender.  It must have gone bad, HAD to have gone bad - somehow, maybe it was stored improperly by the retailer?  The only reason why it gets a + on the D is because of my respect for Bowmore. This is one of the worst whiskies I've ever had.  A damn shame too.

 
DW
 
Awful. Without question the worst nose I've ever experienced, and a terrible whisky taboot. It was almost impossible to get past the nose and actually taste this. Had one managed to taste this without nosing it (at all), it was somewhat improved from the nose, but you simply can't separate the two. Saved from an "F" because...I don't know, it's conceivable there's something out there that tastes like this smells.

HOWEVER, the tasting notes this gave rise to made it - almost - worthwhile. 
Dave
 
yeah....it has already been said better than I can.  WTF?  Think of openning the air valve on an inflatable swimming pool plastic ring.....that was blown up by a sweaty carney with really bad breath......it was worse. 
Tim
 

N: Rotting garbage and farts, feet and wood.

 

P: Feet and vomit, dead rotting animals, dry wood.

 

F: Dry, alcohol. Not as awful. Feet and farts.

 

[censored]!

 

While Usuikyou is probably actually worse, the decay, garbage and funk of this one almost made me vomit. That's unprecedented for me (until this one). The only thing that redeems this (insasmuch as anything can) is that the finish is blessedly short.  

 
Fuji
 
This was just a cask gone wrong. It sucks because I've had other Bow 21's that have been pretty freaking awesome with more vibrant lighter sherry notes. 
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