Bowmore 25 Years Silver Seal Ruggero Leoncavallo Pagliacci 49.6% 1990

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Serge Valentin (88)

Our very good friends at Silver Seal are going on with their musical series, this time with Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci. I can’t wait to see which malt they’ll choose for Stockhausen or Frank Zappa. Yeah or Pixie Lott.

To the whisky connoisseur, 1990 was the vintage when things started to improve again at Bowmore, after the very embarrassing 1980s.

Colour: straw.

Nose: strange. I mean, I don’t quite know. We’re at some crossroads, with a slightly soapy, perfumy, and rotting-orange-y side, as well as a more straightforward, peaty, coastal, and ‘pure’ side. It’s as if someone had vatted together a cask of 1982 and a cask of 2002. Really. And that created something like, say some new leather polished with some Christian Dior hand cream.

Mouth: phew! This palate looks on the brighter side, with some lemony seawater and then an avalanche of citrus (won’t quote them all, we’re running on a small budget) Plus many peppers. Great palate, sharp, zesty, and excellently well-chiselled.

Finish: long, and lace-y. Carved in peat and sea salt. Drizzles of lemon in the aftertaste.

Comments: let’s be honest, I did not care too much for the nose – even if it tended to improve while breathing – but the palate was just entrancing. Oh well, just don’t nose and drink twice.