Bowmore – The Devil’s Cask Small Batch Release II
Bowmore’s newest release “The Devil’s Cask Small Batch Release II”
Who could blame Islay’s oldest distillery for putting together a second release of the VERY popular Devils Cask, it was a winner! Batch one sold out in record timing and instantly proved to be popular with Bowmore Whisky fans and collectors around the world.
Similar to the first batch, The Devil’s Cask II has been matured for 10 years in first fill sherry casks, these casks provide it’s intense colour and devilishly dark notes. Batch II retails at about £60 and is bottled at the natural cask strength of 56.3% vol. It’s limited, again, to only 6,000 bottles worldwide, with just over 500 bottles being allocated to the UK market. Slim pickings for us I’m afraid.
PLEASE NOTE: When writing these tasting notes I already know that the UK allocation is sold out, even at the distillery shop – I tried there too…
Anyway lets release the devil inside and taste Batch II.
Nose: Heaps of liquorice bitter notes, intense dark chocolate, damp wood, autumn incense, truffle oils and a touch of cloves
Palate: Treacle toffees. toasted sweet breads, hot strudel , dark stewed fruits (prunes, sultanas, blackberries), melted dark chocolate, cloves and rich smoky tones wafting throughout the sweetness.
Finish: long and tasty, the high voltage definitely agrees with the dark rich flavours
If you can get your hands on a now rare bottle of this sherryful dram you won’t be disappointed, and it stands up well against it’s sibling Batch I. It’s definitely dark and intense, pretty much everything you would expect from a Whisky matured in first fill sherry and called Devil’s Cask.
I couldn’t stop thinking about this song while tasting this dram, a wee throwback for you – it’s a classic 😉
