Bowmore Fèis Ìle 2025 & Laphroaig Càirdeas 2025 (Lore)

Bowmore Fèis Ìle 2025

Region: Islay

ABV: 56.0%

Price: £120.00 

This year’s Bowmore Fèis Ìle 2025 release is an 8 year old single cask distilled from 100% floor malted barley and matured in an Oloroso seasoned cask. The outturn of the cask was not provided.

Nose

The nose opens with black forest gateau, almond powder, and liquorice. There’s a tang of sherry vinegar, rancio and just a wisp of smoke in the background. Alcohol is well integrated, but the cask is doing most of the talking here, and we’d never have guessed Bowmore. With time the nose gains notes of light BBQ sauce, Christmas pine, dried wood, strawberry jam, and just a faint hint of boiled eggs.

Palate

It’s tasty. Cranberries, raisins, chocolate chips, toffee, cola bottles, and sea salt all before a satisfying wave of peat and ash. Smoked bacon and pepper linger on a medium finish. Mouthfeel is good, and again, alcohol is well hidden. The pepper on the finish is the only giveaway of the ABV. It also doesn’t taste as young as 8 years old, but then it doesn’t really taste like Bowmore either, but we can’t argue that it doesn’t work.

Nose (with water)

Beef Monster Munch, red cola, and dried wood lead the diluted nose. Plenty of red fruit still, but the smoke has faded, and it’s feeling flatter now. The complexity has dipped slightly and the dram starts to feel a little more one dimensional.

Palate (with water)

We’re getting more dried earth and some added bitterness. The peat’s still present, but the finish is now spicier and more drying. Mouthfeel holds, but like the nose, things have become a little more one note. Chilli spice outlasts everything else on the medium length finish.

Conclusion

Surprisingly complex for an 8 year old. It doesn’t nose or taste like Bowmore, but that doesn’t stop it from being an enjoyable dram. Personally we’d suggest leaving the water out, as neat is where this dram really shows its strengths. We’d have went a touch higher if it wasn’t for that faintest whiff of sulphury boiled eggs on the nose.

Score: 7.5/10

Value

Unfortunately, like many Fèis Ìle releases, this lands on the more expensive side. We’d have preferred to see Bowmore release something with a similar outturn as the Laphroaig and a more approachable price point.

Laphroaig Càirdeas 2025 (Lore)

Region: Islay

ABV: 59.6%

Price: £89.90

This year’s Càirdeas release is a cask strength version of the distillery’s popular core range Lore. As with Lore, it’s a marriage of multiple cask types ex-bourbon, Oloroso sherry, European oak, and quarter casks, but this time it’s non-chill filtered and bottled at its natural strength.

Nose

The nose opens with notes of TCP, lemon juice, chocolate mousse, and polo mints. With air, it expands into dried earth, burnt newspaper, light bonfire smoke, proving dough, cooked ham, and wet grass. There’s a faint savoury edge, hand cooked crisps and flat lemonade. The alcohol is present as a light peppery prickle, but it’s impressively well integrated. A gentler, more refined Laphroaig than we were expecting, but still most definitely laphroaig.

Palate

A punch of smoke upfront, quickly followed by dark chocolate, smoked ham, golden syrup, musk, lavender, pistachios, and cashew nuts. Ash appears on the mid-palate and carries into the finish alongside limoncello and that lingering chocolate note. Mouthfeel is solid. The finish is medium in length. For us this is a little reminiscent of Ardbeg on the palate.

Nose (with water)

Dilution dims the smoke and introduces a sharper chlorine like chemical note. There’s a little more pepper now, and the alcohol is slightly more apparent. Bread rolls, mango juice, and pistachios start to show, but it’s lost some of the balance we enjoyed at full strength.

Palate (with water)

The palate remains solid, with a still good mouthfeel, just now with slightly more spice. A few pre dilution flavours have softened, while some of the other sweeter notes have come more into focus. It still works, but the profile still feels a bit more Ardbeg than Laphroaig. Personally we’d skip water.

Conclusion

It’s been a while since we tried the regular Lore, so we’d love to revisit that to do a proper side-by-side. That said, this is a compelling dram on its own tasting like it has an enough cask aging, but without crossing the point where it loses its peaty punch. Another strong showing from the distillery’s festival range.

Score: 8/10

Value

Yes, it’s pricey for a NAS, but in the context of festival releases, it’s on the more affordable end, and it delivers on flavour. A worthy pickup for Laphroaig fans.

• 10 - Perfection. One in a million
• 9 - Outstanding. Exceptional whisky.
• 8 - Great. Would seek this out.
• 7 - Good. Quality whisky.
• 6 - Above average. Happy to have a dram.
• 5 - Average. Drinkable whisky.
• 4 - Below average. Passable.
• 3 - Flawed. Noticeable negatives.
• 2 - Defective. Significant faults.
• 1 - Offensive. Pour it out.

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