In the most recent edition of our club’s magazine ‘De Kiln’ we published a piece written by Scott Adamson of Tomatin distillery. We asked him what their views on ‘weird’ cask usage is, and the finishing of whisky in non-traditional casks after a certain amount of time.

What we got was a very interesting piece about selecting the most recent Limited Editions (rum cask, cabernet sauvignon cask and a sherry cask). Part of the article was a nice bit of opinionated writing about quick finishes to mask inferior whisky. No name calling so that graces him. In short, it was a great article. Loved it and thanks again to Scott!

What it also did was enthuse me about those three bottlings so I decided a bottle share was in order. I evened out the three ‘lower’ strength releases with our club’s bottling and a bottle of a 10 year old sherry cask, cask strength bottling for the Dutch market. Reviews of those will follow, but we’ll start with the Limited Editions first.

The first one I’m reviewing is a nine year old rum cask, which has matured for it’s full length of aging in a rum cask. A nice addition to the story was that, apparently, Tomatin used to use rum casks a lot in the 1920s, so in a way this bottling has some historical significance too.

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
On the nose there’s a certain sweetness right away. A light oak and grain scent too. Sugary, with some straw a touch of sharpness. Some ‘Nizza’ biscuits (coconut biscuit, that is). It’s smooth but more complex than I initially expected. A light spirit with some grassy influences.

Sip:
The palate is slightly spirity. Light and sweet with a grassy hint. Some coconut and shortbread again. More hay than straw this time, with some sugary sweetness. White pepper and a light hint of oak.

Swallow:
The finish is smooth and slightly spicy. Grass, hints of new make spirit.

This all is quite Tomatin like. Some of the younger bottlings out there, the grassy, spirity bit is recognizable. Even at just nine years old (thanks for not making this a NAS whisky) this is a surprisingly complex whisky, which I actually quite like. The rum cask usage makes this dram a bit more sweet and a bit more sugary than I’m used to from the distillery, but it’s not too sweet.

So, in short, a surprisingly good whisky, and a very acceptable price too (some 45 to 50 euros depending on where you get it). A good addition to the range and one I gladly finish my sample of!

85/100

Tomatin 2007-2016, 9yo, Caribbean Rum Barrels, 46%. Available for 50 euros from Dramtime.