Falling in love all over again

Sometimes you have a dram that makes you recognize why you fell in love with whiskey in the first place. Many whiskies are good, some even excellent, but only a few are so sublime, so wonderful, that they transport you to another place. Purple prose? Perhaps. But when it comes to the Bowmore Maltmen's Selection, it is true. We brought back bottle 1555 of 3000 from Islay this summer - a 13 year old sherry butt matured scotch distilled in 1995 and bottled at 54.6% abv in 2008. The color is copper or dark cider. The nose is deeply rich, nutty (hazel, Brazil). The sherry is a beautiful addition, not over-powering. There is some fine peat that works well with the sherry, unlike some overly sherried scotch I have had (Highland Park single casks, for instance). There is also cereal biscuit, orange peal and burned-down fire coals after they've been doused with water. Honey. The taste has some bite, plum sauce. With water,I get caramel sugar, molasses, balsa wood, and muscavado sugar. It has a deep, rich, long-lasting flavor. The water brings out a few floral notes and a bit of the sea, as well as citrus on the tongue. A dram to be savored, ever-so slowly, with undivided attention.