Tomatin is one of those distilleries that makes rather okay whisky, never bad, but also not often stellar. However, they do some very interesting things every now and then. They did a range of different sherry casks a few years ago, their Decades bottlings are quite good and the combination of a whisky and the accompanying sherry (both a PX and an Oloroso set came out) were awesome.
However, the most consistent part of Tomatin is their quite good bourbon cask whiskies. Their spirit is well made, in a rather cool distillery, so that helps too.
So, when a sample of this bourbon cask was offered from a bottle-share, I got a sample and hoped for this to be very good. The reviews on Whiskybase weren’t overly promising, but I don’t always agree with those. Let’s see where this one lands.
Sniff:
Tinned pineapple and thinner. Some acidity, barley, and a dusting of icing sugar. Becomes a bit more toast-like after a few seconds.
Sip:
The palate has some peppery heat, and quite some oak shavings. The fruit flavors are more in the background. Very oak-driven. White pepper, black pepper, some licorice.
Swallow:
The dry flavors come through, but get more mingled with the sweeter scents from the nose. Pineapple and pear-compote with oak shavings, straw and barley.
It’s quite cask driven, but there’s not too much vanilla to be found. It’s a tad sweet, so if that’s your thing, you’ll probably like this. I do enjoy the whisky too, and I love the fruitiness, but the sweetness is a bit much and that takes it down a notch or two.
86/100
Malt Fascination 