I’ve reviewed this set before, almost a decade ago. Back then I wrote short notes on both the sherry and the whisky, but this time I’m only looking at the whisky side of things. I rebought these last year because I remembered being really thrilled with these sets, and they were significantly discounted at the time.

Click the links for the Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso editions.

Of course I did a share with part of it, and then took my time drinking the whisky and the sherry. In case of the whisky, it’s not much of a problem, but with the sherry (especially the Oloroso) I don’t think it helped the booze at all.

The idea of the set is that you get a whisky from Tomatin, that has aged in casks similar to the ones that the sherry came out of. So a PX sherry with a PX matured whisky, and the same for Oloroso. Another bit of geekery, like yesterday’s wood drying differences.

So, just the whisky then!

Tomatin 14, 2000-2015, Oloroso Sherry cask 36132, 57.9%

Sniff:
A gentle nose with lots of barley and straw, and the oloroso cask is right behind it. After while there are some dried fruits, dates and apricots. Slightly jammy, but fairly straight forward in general.

Sip:
Savoury and sweet. Sweet with dried fruits, savoury with dry oak, straw, yeast. Some fig jam, barley. Some chili heat too.

Swallow:
More dried fruits, more fig jam, slightly sweeter than the nose and palate.

Nice, but fairly generic. The combination with the sherry is what makes it fun. Interestingly, I remembered the whisky much more fondly than I can rate it now. Maybe I’ve gotten even more spoiled, or my palate developed (that’s two sides of the same coin…). It’s not a bad dram in the slightest, but I would have expected more cask influence, especially if you’re trying to highlight exactly that.

Then again, this conclusion is largely similar to what I thought 8 years ago.

85/100

Tomatin 13, 2002-2015, Pedro Ximénez cask 36130, 53.4%

Sniff:
There is a LOT of sherry, and a very sweet style at that. Lots of dark dried fruits and syrupy richness. Dates, plums, figs, sweet oranges.

Sip:
Very similar to the nose, but with quite a bit of bite from the alcohol. Dark fruits with a hint of orange.

Swallow:
A long and sweet finish. Lots of dark syrup with dates, plums, figs.

So, in a way the whisky is similarly generic as the Oloroso cask is, but there is a lot more sherry influence here. Not entirely surprising with a PX sherry, those tend to be heavy hitters when used for maturing whisky. The spirit itself plays second fiddle, but that might just be the distillery style. As with the previous one, a decent dram but not overly memorable.

Once more the conclusion is similar to November 2015. The Oloroso might be interesting for longer, but in a quick tasting, this stands out more.

85/100

I think, if I’d re-read the tasting notes before ordering the bottles, I might have skipped them. Then again, the old sherry that came with them made up for a bit. That’s still a rather lovely drink and something I should really look into more…