The Bowmore 12 Year 2001 (116.8 proof) from The Exclusive Malts

Tasting notes:
We got a set of contrasting notes on the nose. Bill declared it a “light Islay” from the get-go, but John found notes of a tank rolling over a beef stew with a hiccup of diesel fuel. Both agreed that there are also notes of oysters laid carefully in a gravel pit once used to store spent motor oil. I found a distinct Bourbon note on the nose, but that of a smoky, unctuous Bourbon, a Bourbon drunk from the metal cup/top to an insulated Thermos™ previously and precariously perched atop an oil-rag draped headlight next to a yawning open hood bearing a Ford 438, newly installed and ready for inspection.
     On the mouth, it’s like using a Black Snake firework as a cough drop, only tastier. Dr. Two Strokes Patented Smoke Lozenges™: They’ll Smoke Out What Ails Ye. But it’s also bright and hot and…well…smoky. There’s some nice spice on the mouth as well, but you have to work past the peat to get a good read on it. In that way, it’s not unlike licking a pan just used for Blackened Redfish in an attempt to taste the oregano. Still, the difference between the nose and mouth is large–and in charge.
     The finish is really nice, presenting with notes of elderberries, only younger. Imagine seaweed used to filter an oil spill when BP got really lazy. Or imagine seaweed and elderberries making babies in the pan–unless you’re against interspecies copulation which is really just hybridization, in which case you have to ask yourself whether you can really extend your sexual mores to the realm of the asexual (reproduction). The finish really goes on and goes on beautifully smoothly. It’s a Meb Keflezighi finish.