Bowmore 1999-2010 - 11 Year Old - The Queen Of The Moorlands - Single Cask Cask 352

Constructed in 1779, Bowmore is Islay’s oldest distillery and dominates the island’s capital. After changing hands several times early in the 20th century, Bowmore distillery was bought by Stanley P. Morrison in 1963 and embarked on a golden era. This lasted until the early 1980s, when a strangely soapy character took hold in Bowmore’s spirit, before another run of extraordinary quality in the 1990s. The Japanese firm Suntory took full control of Bowmore in 1994, the year after the first release of Black Bowmore, a legendary whisky that catalysed the prestige whisky market.

Early official bottlings of Bowmore are highly sought after, particularly the Sherriff’s bottlings, the stunning Bicentenary editions, and the 1950s-70s vintage editions that appeared from the early 1980s. The modern Bowmore 1964 Trilogies and subsequent prestige bottlings are also fiercely contested by deep-pocketed fans, as are the numerous fabulous old indie bottlings of 1960s vintages by Samaroli, Giaccone, Duncan Taylor, Signatory and others.

The Queen of the Moorlands whiskies were a range of bottlings released between 2004-2013 by The Wine Shop in Leek, an independent off license run by husband and wife team David and Leonie Wood. The range was discontinued when the pair sold their shop business and moved to Islay to work for Diageo and Kilchoman, but their whiskies have performed well at auction ever since.

Although relatively short-lived, the Queen of the Moorlands bottlings were generally of very high quality: of the 40 or so bottlings that appeared, almost all were bottled at 46% or cask strength without colouring or chill filtration. A 1991 Bowmore and 1982 Caol Ila were among highlights from the range, which also included a superb 35-year-old Strathisla.