A Golden Retriever, Now in Liquid Form: Gold Bowmore Completes the Trilogy

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed)
Oct 7th 2009 at 3:02PM

Trilogies are uncertain things: after a fabulous introductory act you never know which way progress will decide to turn, and it is far more common for the second and third installments to veer the way of uninspired, if not downright awful. Bowmore, the maker of full-bodied scotches on tucked among the Hebrides, has worked for 45 years to avoid that trend with its latest troika. First there was Black Bowmore in 2007, White Bowmore in 2008, and now Gold Bowmore makes the play complete.

Distilled on November 5, 1964 the 84.8% proof scotch has been matured in three bourbon casks and one Oloroso sherry cask in Bowmore's Number 1 vault, tucked below sea level. When the resulting elixirs were married, the Oloroso cask's sherry and walnut hues found their way into the mix, imbuing the final liquid with "a darker, reddish-amber" tint. Or perhaps it should be called the final nectar: the aroma is described a combination of passion fruit, papaya, and vanilla. Add that to Bowmore's trademark smoky peat undertones, and you could have something special in your hands.

There will be 701 bottles of the gold version, the smallest number among the three. What will not be smallest is the price: $6,250 for a hand-numbered bottle in a Burr Elm box. Although that price might seem untoward, you can look at it as an asset -- an unopened set of Bowmore's first trilogy, released in the early nineties, sold for $17,530 at auction in 2007. Even if you do spend six large on a bottle of Gold Bowmore and then thought better of it, we don't think you'll be sorry -- buyer's remorse has probably never tasted so good.

[Source: Bowmore]

Tags: black bowmore, BlackBowmore, bowmore, gold bowmore, GoldBowmore, scotch, scotch whiskey, ScotchWhiskey, spirits, whiskey, white bowmore, WhiteBowmore