A single-cask Bowmore distilled in 1974 and bottled by the independent house Signatory Vintage. Bowmore spirit from the mid-1970s is widely associated with a tropical-fruit character layered over gentle Islay peat.
About This Whisky
This bottle comes from a single cask of 1974 Bowmore, cask number 2013, selected and bottled by Signatory. Old Bowmore of this era is prized for flavours of passion fruit, mango and grapefruit sitting over soft smoke and sea air. Because it is a single cask, colour, strength and outturn are unique to this bottling.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Passion fruit, pineapple and grapefruit, with light peat smoke, sea air and old polished oak.
- Palate: Silky and complex, with tropical fruit, lemon oil, brine, soft spice and gentle smoke.
- Finish: Long and coastal, with lingering fruit, a trace of menthol and dry oak.
Serving & Food
Take time over this one. Serve unchilled in a nosing glass and taste it neat before deciding on water. Keep food simple: fresh mango, a few slices of jamón, or nothing at all.
How to Enjoy
Islay fans who value mature Bowmore from the 1970s, and anyone marking a 1974 birth year with a single-cask bottle.
Product Details
Distillery: Bowmore
Bottler: Signatory Vintage
Country: Scotland
Region: Islay
Style: Single cask single malt Scotch whisky
Vintage: 1974
Cask Number: 2013
Volume: 750mL
About the Distillery
Bowmore, on the eastern shore of Loch Indaal, was founded in 1779 and is the oldest licensed distillery on Islay. In 1963 the whisky broker Stanley P. Morrison bought it, and the Morrison family ran it through the 1970s, so this cask was filled during their time. The distillery still malts part of its own barley on traditional floors, peated to around 25 ppm, and its No. 1 Vaults, partly below sea level beside the loch, are often described as the oldest maturation warehouse in Scotland. Suntory took full control of Morrison Bowmore in 1994. Signatory Vintage, the bottler, was set up in Edinburgh in 1988 by Andrew Symington to buy individual casks from distilleries and bottle them one at a time under their own names.