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wine review

A Scottish single malt for American-bourbon lovers? It might be an apt description. The fifth of Bowmore's six small-batch releases under the Tempest line tastes like it had gone on holiday in Kentucky and returned to the motherland with a souvenir straw hat and pair of overalls. Most Scottish single malts have long been matured in used barrels that once contained bourbon, a fact well-known to Scotch aficionados. (Used barrels are paramount, because Scotch whisky would quickly turn unpalatably astringent in new lumber.) But here the corn-likker residue from that soaked, charred wood takes on a more conspicuous presence than in your typical single malt or blended whisky. Rich, mellow vanilla is the first clue. Then there's the up-in-your-nose attack reminiscent of orange oil (or paint thinner if you insist on a more pejorative term). At its core, though, this is Islay whisky from the island that made peat smoke famous. Bottled cask-strength, at 55.9-per-cent alcohol, rather than watered down to 40 per cent before bottling like most whiskies, it's peppery, sooty and salty.

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