Brew Hops & Wine Stops

Friday we introduced our new blogger: Kristyn Lier (your humble editor apparently can't spell--sorry, Kristyn!). Kristyn will be blogging on beers every other Friday, and on spirits once or twice a month as well. You can find her at our Hwy 60 Vero Beach store for in-person recommendations.

Bowmore Legend Islay Scotch

Color: copper and gold deep in the middle with lighter hues of sun-kissed straw and hay along the side.

 Nose: salty smoke, seaweed, and a hint of iodine. Wet sod. Honey baked grains. Band-Aids. Pervasive smoke.

 Palate: medium light weight, full in the middle with a fast finish. Salty smoke holds everything together. Sweet and dry golden hay. Leather in the back. Iodine mixed in salt and smoke in the breath, lingering long and growing Band-Aid notes. Simple but good.

Finish: salty smoke with a hard bite of iodine and Band-Aids underneath. Fast.

Bowmore. I had less than stellar expectations for the single-malts from Bowmore of Islay (pronounced “eye-la”) on the eastern shore of Loch Indaal, expectations which I should know by now are just plain silly. The Islay Legend is Bowmore’s core classic single-malt of no age denomination which, for me, is a first. Age denomination aside, she had plenty of flavor and classic Islay character to satiate. Everyone’s palate is different so flavors will weigh differently on each tasters palate, such as mine, where lemon zest was non-existent. The perennial sea salt, iodine, smoke, and leather were clean-cut and at full attention.

I loved it. A daily quaffer if I ever savored one.

And I shouldn’t be surprised. Bowmore has been around since 1779. To add a bit of perspective, Bowmore has been around as long as the now United States of America, minus three years, of course. Now that is living drinkable touchable tasteable history – a dram timeless. With a Standard range that includes a 12, 15, 18, and 25 year, Bowmore also boasts a Travel Retail line of 5 different malts and a USofA specific range that boasts a whopping 10 different malts. The Islay Legend which I savored above shares her home with both Scotland and America, a mutual relationship of dram drinking burgundianism.

One of the most awkward descriptions around might just contain the words "un-chill filtered." Huh? What is un-chill filtering? For that matter, what is chill filtering and what's the difference?

Chill filtering means that the whisky is chilled to around 32 degrees F, then passed through a filter that removes fatty compounds produced during distillation. These can sometimes produce a hazy appearance in the whisky, so removing them ensures that later the whisky remains clear. However, many whisky aficionados believe that chill filtering also removes some of the flavor and character from the whisky.

Un-chill filtered whisky, of course, does not go through this process. It's not necessary at higher proofs, either. To pure whisky lovers, though, the important point would be that the original character of the whisky is left intact, not filtered out.

One of our favorite distilleries, Burn Stewart (Bunnahabhain, Deanston, Tobermory, Ledaig) has recently made the move away from chill filtering altogether. The stock we have on hand is largely still chill filtered, but will be replaced by un-chill filtered whiskies at the higher proof. If you're a Scotch lover, this would be a great time to lay in some stock of the chill filtered whisky, then do a comparison tasting when the new, un-chill filtered whisky is in hand.