Fly and Buy an Exclusive Islay Dram

After the announced release of the 42yr old Black Bowmore by Morrison Bowmore Distillers there is a new very exclusive bottling on it's way. This time it's a 43yr old and it comes from one of the oldest casks left in the distillery on Islay, cask 811 to be precise. To understand what happens with this new bottling it's best to read the press release first which I received from the Bowmore Distillery:

"In preparation for the opening of Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport in March, World Duty Free and Morrison Bowmore Distillers, have collaborated to create an exclusive, premium Bowmore Single Malt release for Terminal 5 customers. Mark Riches, Managing Director World Duty Free and Paul Hunnisett, Spirit Buyer for World Duty Free, spent two days with the Bowmore team selecting a cask from their Islay Distillery. This exclusive bottling will be showcased at the much anticipated Terminal 5 opening. The selection process, which took place in October 2007 included the sampling and tasting of various Bowmore vintages from the world famous distillery vaults. Making Bowmore history, this will be the first time a major retailer has been invited to select from its rare, premium vintages. Continue reading....
Mark Riches says: 'This is a fantastic opportunity for World Duty Free and we are honoured that Bowmore Distillery has invited us to select a product exclusively for our passengers at Terminal 5.' Andrew Torrance, UK Sale Manager for Bowmore Distillers added: 'We wanted to further develop our close partnership with World Duty Free and their customers. Both Terminal 5 and Bowmore are at the fore front of, not only providing the best quality products, but also developing the best quality retail environment. This exclusive bottling offers Terminal 5 customers the opportunity to purchase a very rare and limited vintage of award winning single malt whisky'."

This very old cask should normally have been moved to Glasgow for bottling but since there were fears that the cask would desintegrate during transport, two people from Bowmore's bottling dept in Glasgow came over to empty the raw spirit from the cask into temporary bottles. Considering the possible price of these bottles, I have heard far beyond the 42yr old Black Bowmore which is around ?2000, it's no more than logical that any risks were avoided with such precious cargo. I have also heard that the angels had a fair share of this exlusive whisky, and probably a good time too, since the anticipated 80 bottles turned out to be a little more than 50 when the cask was emptied.

As stated above in the press release, this very exclusive and limited Bowmore whisky will only be available for Terminal 5 customers which is due to open at end of March, which is at the moment of writing 46 days from today. The casks in the picture are not from this exclusive bottling.

Update: Takeshi published an article on his blog about this special bottling and supplied an interesting link to an article called roll out the barrel, where you can read about the visit of the World Duty free team to the Bowmore Distillery and the selection of the cask.

Tag: bowmore distillery heathrow