TOMATIN TASTING 26 NOVEMBER 2015, PERTH

They made me go! I was dragged kicking and screaming … Tomatin is one of my favourite drams, so I really reluctantly agreed, was it really worth all the effort? AYE it was. Alistair did a wonderful job of hosting this evening event in Perth at Exel, with my pal Keron pouring the drinks, heavier than usual by the way.

From 23 stills in days gone by, once the largest distillery in Scotland, I didnee know the largest shareholder (days gone by) was a coal miners collective! Tomatin in the Gaelic; the hill of the juniper bush, I also didnee know 80% of the people living in the cottages nearby actually work at the distillery. With a warehouse capacity of 220k casks and a max production of 2.5 million litres (used to be 15m), it is sold in over 30 countries worldwide. Going back again in time, any blend, aye … any blend would have had a dribble of Tomatin hidden in there, they used to sell 99.9% to blenders, not any more thankfully, now they offer fantastic single malts – I’ll get to them – with maybe W&M being a blend they still supply. Japanese owned since 1984, this distillery we reckon gives maybe 3% to the angels, being a highland laddie with varying temperatures. So, to the sampling from the 12 remaining stills … we started with Tomatin 12yo. At 43% it is chill filtered, bourbon cask and sherry finish 6 – 9 months, ah, they do sometimes add a wee bit o colour/caramel. I think maybe USA is a big market for this one, a cheeky wee highland malt, could easily pass for a Speyside, good value, nice but no a favourite I have to say.

Moving on to the Tomatin 14 yo, this was really good, a port finish, 46% non chilled, 13 years in bourbon and a year in Tawny Port pipe. A pinky colour (no added colour) you can taste the port influence, but not overly so. Yep, liked this one. By the way, Tomatin have no plans to drop age statements. Third up, the 18 year old (my best dram of the night), their signature dram, 16 years bourbon followed by 2 in Oloroso 1^st fill, this has the intensity that makes it a cracker, at £45 at the tasting who could resist? I bought three, one I gave to Mr Chan, kept the other two myself for a dark, cold, snow filled night – on my own (maybe will share with Liz at our staff get away). Non chilled, I recommend this to everyone. A water break, no much mind, then onto a cask strength jobbie, not a single cask, non chilled again, at 57.5% this reminded me of a Glenmorangie Signet, chocolate and sherry, 12 – 16 year olds, this almost took first prize of the night, reckon just a midgie’s whisker away from the 18 yo. This gem ended our Tomatin tasting, but – more to follow, we had a Cu Bochan (koo bakan) single malt, lightly peated, virgin oak, the name in Gaelic; the ghost dog, or wolf. It was good. Followed by Cu Bocan Bourbon, refil cask, limited edition.

The night ended there (whisky), many thanks to Alistair and Keron, by the way Keron, will be back for a cask bottle. A great tasting, lovely drams and informative, learned a lot. By 8pm I was starving, so dondered over to Mr Chan’s place for food, got home eventually, woke up next day with clothes everywhere but two bottles of 18yo and my Tomatin glass neatly shelved! What’s the next one? I have to say, before the Tomatin tasting, I was involved with a Macallan tasting earlier that night, Amber, Sienna and Ruby, only the latter came close to the Tomatins.

 Paul McLean  http://whiskytours.scot/