Bowmore 12 years

Score: 54

Bowmore 12 fell flat at the club tasting, ranking 4th out of 6 and sparking a collective shrug from the room. As the flagship age-stated expression from Islay’s oldest distillery, expectations were modest but hopeful, yet the dram delivered little more than a whisper of smoke and a thin, underpowered profile. Bottled at 40% ABV, it felt diluted with faint coastal notes and a touch of citrus barely lifting it above the baseline. For a beginner Islay whisky, it’s worth exploring, but the club consensus was clear: you can find a lot of much better whiskies at this price. It’s a dram that might serve as a gentle introduction to peat, but in this lineup, it simply didn’t have the presence to compete. A quiet pour, quickly forgotten.