Bowmore 40 Year Old | 2022 Release | Cask Strength 48.7% ABV | 160 Bottles | Natural Colour | 70cl

Bowmore's annual 40 Year Old releases are among the most anticipated and immediately collectible expressions the distillery produces — tiny outturns of deeply aged Islay single malt, drawing on four decades of sherry and bourbon cask maturation in the famous vaults below sea level. The 2022 release is particularly rare even within this series: just 160 individually numbered bottles, bottled at cask strength of 48.7% ABV — a bolder, more intense expression than the 2024 release that followed it, and with a year's less global exposure on the secondary market. For collectors tracking the annual Bowmore 40 Year Old series, the 2022 vintage represents one of the smallest outturns in recent memory.

Key Details
- Distillery: Bowmore, Islay
- Expression: 40 Year Old
- Release Year: 2022
- Style: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
- Cask maturation: Sherry and bourbon casks
- Bottling strength: 48.7% ABV — Cask Strength
- Bottle size: 70cl
- Outturn: 160 individually numbered bottles
- Colouring / filtration: Natural Colour, Non-Chill-Filtered
- Condition: Perfect, with original packaging

Tasting Notes
Nose: Dates, ripe mango, dark chocolate, and caramel — rich and indulgent, with vanilla, honey, and exotic fruits layering together over decades of patient cask influence.
Palate: Dark chocolate, dried tobacco, praline, and roasted chestnuts combine with subtle Islay peat smoke — full-bodied, concentrated, and complex, with the cask strength adding weight and texture that draws everything together.
Finish: Full-bodied, lingering, and luxurious — one of those finishes that doesn't announce its end, it simply continues.

Why This Bottle Is Worth Bidding On
- At 160 bottles, the 2022 release is one of the smallest outturns in the Bowmore 40 Year Old annual series — fewer bottles exist than the 2024 release (201 bottles), making this an even rarer find on the secondary market.
- Bottled at 48.7% ABV cask strength — a markedly different and more intense expression than the 2024's 45.1% — giving collectors who seek the most direct, uncompromised version of this whisky a compelling reason to bid.
- Annual Bowmore 40 Year Old releases from earlier vintages surface increasingly rarely at auction; as a dated, individually numbered 2022 edition, this bottle will only become harder to find as time passes.