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About a month ago I received a bottle of Bowmore 10 Year Old – Devil’s Casks Inspired Limited Edition. I fell head over heels in love with this whisky. Unlike a lot of other Islay whiskies I've had, this Bowmore bottle had a perfect harmony between the bold and smokey peat flavour and the sweet, citrus and dark chocolate flavours of the oloroso sherry cask. However, because its a travel retail exclusive I can't easily get my hands on it unless someone I know is travelling through the airport or going to DFS (I live in New Zealand so its quite expensive too, around $88 or so).
So I was wondering if any of you guys could suggest a good whisky similar to this Bowmore one? One thats peated and matured in oloroso sherry casks. I know about the Aberlour 18 Years etc. But I'm specifically looking for an Islay single malt. Any suggestions?
@Furinkazan
One that I can think of is the Laphroaig Triple Wood. That is smoky and has been finished in Oloroso casks.
Another one is Kilchomans whisky Machir Bay. It also has Oloroso casks.
@Furinkazan
Sticking with Bowmore, I would suggest you try their 15 year-old Darkest. It has a 3-year finish in ex-Oloroso casks.
@Furinkazan
had this with the Bowmore Black Rock recently, this is indeed very nice. I agree that you should consider the 15 year Darkest.
your $88 price is that NZ$?
@Furinkazan
well NZ$ is now roughly on par with Singapore $, so you shouldn't complain too much as it is much much higher here due to the inhuman (to whisky connoisseurs) liquor duty (and 7% GST on top of that duty).
this was selling for $85 at the Singapore duty free, and then just as I thought I'd get a bottle, they upped it to $105! I have a distinct feeling of being raped, so I didn't get one.
Peated Single Malts are most common on the Isle of Islay. Sherry cask maturation was only popular over decades at Bowmore. But the malts of Bowmore aren't that smoky. The smoke is at 35ppm which is tastable lower than other distilleries on Islay.
Bunnahabhain and Bruichladdich were famous for their unpeated whiskies. But everything changed since appr. the year 2000. Today every distillery produces peated and unpeated as well as Sherry cask matured or not. But pleate notice, that there are several types of Sherry casks used at the distilleries. Lagavulin uses mostly sweet PX and Caol Ila Moscatel casks.
hmmmm....