I love Douglas Laing Old Particular line. I’ve tasted a couple of them when I visited their HQ in Glasgow last October (you can see the post here) and they all were rock solid or excellent.

During that visit, we tasted the bit controversial Old Particular Bowmore 25 yo which proudly carry the FWP attribute (Google it if you don’t know what I’m talking about) and the jury was still out there for me.

And now, few months later, here’s another Old Particular Bowmore but this time a 17 years old which was bottled in December 2013. Let’s taste it and see how does it compares to the older sibling.

Douglas Laing Old Particular Bowmore 17 (48.4%, 312 bottles, buy for £95.37 here)

Nose: Earthy peat notes with floral and clean meadow notes, some medicinal/soapy edge and lots of menthol. Overall it has a very clean nose. After some time, some of the peat notes dissipate revealing apricots notes.

Palate: Mellow, sweet and soot peat (dirtier than on nose) and in addition herbal notes with some menthol.

Finish: Long finish, pet with sweet oak wood, fresh menthol and then sweet apricots.

Conclusion: Definitely no FWP impact here, but instead there’s big menthol impact. At some times during the tasting it felt like there’s too much menthol but it is still a very nice dram, quite balanced and I felt it’s better then the older sibling and offer much better value for money.

(Official sample from the Douglas Laing)