SMWS 25.64 Rosebank 22-Year Old Whisky Review!

As special drams go, this one is right up there! The only Rosebank I'll ever own, found for a bargain price a few years ago, and opened to help celebrate my 40th birthday!

A triple-distilled Lowland single malt using worm tub condensers. On paper it sounds strange and contradictory, much like the production regimens of many other Scotch whisky distilleries. But in the case of Rosebank there's one undeniable fact: whatever the reasoning for those contradictions, it worked! This dead - but now rebuilt - distillery in Falkirk, roughly 45-minutes north of Edinburgh, has earned a cult following since it's closure in June 1993. Then-owner United Distillers' (which later became Diageo) reasoning for closing this 150-year old malt whisky distillery was a £2,000,000 investment to make it compliant with environmental requirements and waste practices. After the distillery was closed the property was sold to the local government thanks to its convenient location on the banks of the Forth & Clyde Canal, and the distillery buildings soon fell into disrepair and neglect. The stills were then cut up & stolen under suspicious circumstances and other pieces of plant were pinched for other distilleries, which cemented Rosebank's fate. 

For most Scotch whisky lovers there are three most-vaunted names uppermost in their list of departed distilleries; Brora in the Highlands, Port Ellen on Islay, and Rosebank in the Lowlands. This dead distillery trifecta is far more popular and more widely known than they were while operating, akin to many great artists not being appreciated fully until their demise. Maybe we don't know what we've got 'til it's gone! Diageo still own the former two distilleries which have since been rebuilt and reopened, but in 2017 they surprisingly sold the Rosebank brand and remaining stocks to Ian McLeod Distillers, the company behind Tamdhu & Glengoyne distilleries plus a few independent bottling brands. Ian McLeod also managed to purchase the original distillery site and the remaining buildings from the Scottish government, and in 2019 they began planning to rebuild Rosebank Distillery. Work didn't actually begin until 2021 and production at the new distillery - pictured above - didn't begin until mid-2023, and the visitor's centre didn't open until mid-2024. The company has continued to release the old pre-closure stock as well, and will do so until 2026-onwards when the new spirit comes of age as Scotch whisky.

Despite the new owner's efforts to retain as much of the original Rosebank site as possible, in reality this is a completely new and modern distillery. But they've stayed true to the Rosebank name by going with 100% triple-distillation and worm tub condensers, arguably the most important part of the distillery's production regimen. Triple distillation is a practice more widely (and inaccurately) attributed to Irish whiskey, and is a rarity in Scotch whisky. The entirety of Rosebank's production is distilled three times rather than the usual two-times that is commonplace in Scotch whisky. A few Scottish distilleries do dabble in triple distillation - for example Benromach, Benriach, Glasgow, and Springbank for their Hazelburn brand, but only Beam Suntory's Auchentoshan and now Ian McLeod's Rosebank triple distill 100% of their spirit production. Crucially, particularly for a triple-distilled spirit, each of Rosebank's three pot stills are equipped with traditional worm tub condensers, which makes Rosebank unique in Scotch whisky and quite possibly in the world. While triple-distillation makes for a lighter, cleaner, and more refined spirit, worm tub condensers do the opposite by providing less copper contact than a modern shell & tube condenser, while also being faster to condense the spirit vapours back into liquid. Essentially the spirit vapours travel through the lyne arms at the top of the pot stills into a single copper or sometimes stainless steel coiling pipe which plunges into a vat of cold water, rapidly cooling the vapours back into liquid. This results in a heavier, more characterful, and more viscous spirit when compared to a modern shell & tube condenser, generally also resulting in a more meaty, dirty, or sulphurous character due to lessened interaction with copper which removes sulphur compounds from the spirit. And that's what we have with Rosebank; a floral but muscular, viscous but delicate Lowland single malt. This is even apparent in the few younger examples that I've been lucky enough to try over the years, but it's a profile that also works beautifully with long-term ageing in a refill cask. Which is exactly what we have here!

The Rosebank that we're looking at today is an independent bottling from The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS), who use distillery code '25' to signify Rosebank. Named "Manzanilla Sherry Trifle" this bottling was the 64th cask of Rosebank that "The Society" had bottled, so it's labelled as 25.64 in their coding system. It was distilled on the 14th of November 1990 and matured in a single refill ex-bourbon hogshead (250-litre cask) prior to being bottled at 22-years of age back in 2013. 231 bottles were released at a cask strength of 58.9% ABV, and it is of course non-chill filtered and natural colour. I was lucky enough to stumble across this bottle at a very reasonable price - all thanks to a much appreciated heads up from a fellow whisky nerd - a few years ago, and since Rosebank is the favourite distillery of another good mate, I decided to crack it open to help celebrate my 40th birthday in late-2024 where I opened one bottle for each person's favourite distilleries. As you can see, unfortunately for me one of these good mates has much more expensive tastes than the rest of us, and I'm extremely unlikely to ever own another bottle of Rosebank! But he & the rest of us loved the dram if anything it's improved even further in the subsequent months. So I stand by my decision! Let's get into it!

Rosebank 22-year old, SMWS 25.64, 58.9% ABV. Lowlands, Scotland.

Distilled 14/11/1990, matured in single ex-bourbon hogshead, bottled 2013. 231 bottles, non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Malty, fruity, floral, and dense. Lovely biscuity malted barley, milk bottle lollies (vanilla chewy sweets), quality vanilla custard, marzipan, and ground wood spices. Woody & sweet dried flowers (pot purri mix), bitter grapefruit rind, and a touch of lemon peel. White pepper, salted liquorice, and freeze-dried berries. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Thick & viscous, oily, malty, and spicy. Slight heat, but it is 59% alcohol after all!

Taste: Malty dry entry with that biscuity malt, more white pepper, ground wood spices, some freshly cut hardwood & sawdust. Salted liquorice again, vanilla bean custard, and pot purri (woody & sweet dried flower mix). Marzipan, a touch of thickened cream, and lemon butter cake icing. 

Finish: Long length. White pepper, marzipan, and a little fresh sawdust. Sharp & bitter grapefruit (one of my favourite notes in whisky), and that lemon butter cake icing. Still malty & biscuity, sweet, lightly floral & woody. This 22-year old Rosebank would make a fantastic perfume!

Score: 4.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Just delicious. Rosebank really is excellent, and this is a great example, one of the best I've had to date. The only other Lowlanders I've had that come close are St. Magdalene / Linlithgow, which is far rarer and even more expensive than Rosebank, and one good ex-bourbon cask Daftmill - in a more "modern" style of course. In fact there were surprising similarities between that first Daftmill I tasted and those younger Rosebanks mentioned above, which is surprising because Daftmill use neither triple distillation nor worm tub condensers... Just goes to show that both distilleries were & are doing something right! It's good to see Rosebank finally kick back into life, and I hope the new owners can successfully recreate this fantastic & unique style of whisky. Time will tell - a couple of decades' time, in fact. 

This review is slightly bittersweet, since this bottle is irreplaceable, but I'm very glad I've opened it. And for a fitting occasion as well! I'll not be rushing to finish this very special bottle - not that I ever do rush to finish a bottle, often taking years! But I'll be stretching this one out as much as possible. Fantastic whisky and a great example of what Rosebank made back then, and hopefully will make again. 

Cheers!

SMWS 3.309 Bowmore 13-Year Old Whisky Review!

Another auction win! This one is a 13-year old single cask Bowmore bottled by the SMWS, titled "Peat Smoke, Pipe Ash, and Pata Negra"... Don't worry, I had to google that one too; it means "black foot" in Spanish and refers to Iberico jamón (Spanish ham). Thanks for that, SMWS!

Ah, Bowmore. If it weren't for the independent bottlers, I'd have a totally different opinion on this distillery. I suspect most serious malt heads are in the same boat there. Bowmore seems to be quite a versatile spirit, despite being the most lightly peated of the peated Islay malts. It can work quite well in very active sherry casks, and can even hold up to virgin oak. But it's in refill and/or ex-bourbon casks that this distillery really seems to shine, particularly when left alone until the mid-teens or preferably longer. Most importantly though, it needs to be bottled at a decent ABV and without chill filtration and artificial colouring. Which is of course where the vast majority of official bottlings drop out of the race. When it comes to the Bowmore core range, distillery owners Beam Suntory really don't seem to give a shit. This is Islay's oldest surviving malt whisky distillery, yet the owners choose to only give us 40-43% ABV whiskies that are chill filtered to the harshest degree, and are loaded with artificial colouring. Let's not forget that the 15-year old expression used to be called "Darkest", despite being thoroughly dosed with E150 caramel colouring! That's quite a different story to sister distillery Laphroaig, where Beam Suntory allows three core range expressions to be bottled at 48% (Quarter Cask, Lore, and 10yo Sherry Oak) without chill filtration. Interestingly Bowmore and Laphroaig have two of Islay's three malting floors, although the in-house malt only provides 15-20% of their requirements, with the rest sourced from commercial maltings either at Port Ellen (not anymore, I'm sure) or on the mainland. Beam Suntory have also spent a substantial amount over on the east coast at Glen Garioch, where the malting floor has been recommissioned and the wash still has been converted to direct firing, along with the promise of reverting to the use of peated malt in future. And that distillery's core range has been bottled at 48% and above for quite some time now. So maybe all is not lost just yet!

There are higher ABV official bottlings of Bowmore, of course, but they're priced beyond the reach of most of the distillery's fans. Very few - if any - of those higher-end expressions are ever imported in to Australia, so a quick browse of a UK retailer tells me that you'd need to spend upwards of $600 AUD to get your hands on something like that. Those of us in Australia may get some more higher-end Bowmore OBs in mid-2025 however, when Beam Suntory switches to direct distribution as their decade-long distribution contract with Coca-Cola is due to expire. For now though, as with many distilleries, if you want a higher ABV and naturally presented example, you'll need to look to the independent bottlers. Thankfully there are always a few to choose from, although the stock does seem to be diminishing and the ages do seem to be moving upwards, with prices jumping much higher as a result. 15-18 year old cask strength Bowmores are regularly appearing for $400 or more here, which might be pushing it, but is also a sign of the times. Younger examples seem to be thin on the ground too, which has me thinking that the distillery has reduced its sales to external customers. Which is a real shame if the distillery is going to keep pumping out boring chill filtered whiskies at 40-43% ABV rather than show us what they can do with their own product at a reasonable price. The Vaults series of NAS bottlings were the most recent appearance of such a thing, at sub-$200 with ABVs in the mid-50s. Originally there were meant to be four releases in that series, but to date only two have seen the light of day - "Atlantic Sea Salt and "Peat Smoke", with the former being released in 2016 and the latter in 2019. So we'd better not hold our breaths for any future instalments in the series! 

This particular SMWS Bowmore, code 3.309 -  meaning the 309th cask they've bottled from distillery code 3, which is Bowmore - is a single cask 13-year old that was distilled in 2004. It was matured in a refill hogshead and bottled at a cask strength of 56.2% in early 2018, with an outturn of 241 bottles. They've named this cask "Peat Smoke, Pipe Ash, and Pata Negra" which as mentioned above is a fancy way of saying Spanish ham. "The Society" is never shy with their bottling names, or with their tasting notes - some are just absolute wank! At least it sounds like many of us want in a Bowmore, hopefully with some tropical fruit, citrus, and a medicinal edge. Let's give it a go!

SMWS 3.309 Bowmore 13-year old, 56.2%. Islay, Scotland.

Distilled 2004, matured in single refill hogshead, bottled 2018. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 241 bottles.

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Buttery, medicinal, smoky, fruit. Chilled salted butter, tiger balm & deep heat muscle gels, honeydew melon on toast (yes, I know...), white pepper, camphor (moth balls), and cigar ash. Lemon balm ointment, smoky malted barley, hint of lavender bath soap. 

Texture: Medium weight. Oily, sweet, medicinal, fruity. Slight heat but pleasant. 

Taste: Sweet tropical fruit gels (the pastille / jube lollies with the jelly / liquid centres), fresh sharp pineapple, mango skins, more salted butter & medicinal ointments. Big pinch of white pepper, some damp rock pool-like minerality. Hot tar & asphalt (i.e. new road), touch of gravy powder / beef stock around the edges. 

Finish: Medium-long length. Melted salted butter, cigar ash, more sweet fruit with mango skins, honeydew melon, and fresh pineapple. Salted preserved lemons, smoky malted barley, heavily smoked ham around the edges. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Delicious spirit-driven Bowmore. Hides its youth quite well, showing off the more medicinal and smoky side of Bowmore without any overt cask influence getting in the way. It's surprisingly smoky actually, heading towards that smoky bacon side of things that reminds me of some (very) smoky beers I've had in the past - which aren't peat smoked of course, but there are similarities regardless. I don't recall getting that sort of note in a Bowmore before, or the meaty smoked ham notes either, which I'd normally associate more with Caol Ila. Not a negative by any means, it's delicious! It's just a little unusual for this distillery in my experience - but that's the beauty of these single cask independent bottlings! Once again I'm reminded that the distillery owners don't seem to appreciate what they have, requiring you to spend some serious money to see what Bowmore can actually offer. Then again prices on independent bottlings of Bowmore are also very high these days!

Cheers!