Tomatin's New Fifteen Year Old

Almost a year to the day, we bought you news of a brace of interesting Tomatin releases,
including the spankingly brilliant Decades release, which very nearly came top in our
end of year BIG Awards.

Now, the distillery are bringing out another interesting limited edition bottling -
this time bringing together the worlds of American whiskey and Spanish wine casks.

The fifteen year old release is a combination of bourbon barrels and ex-Tempranillo
wine casks, bottled at cask strength.  The release will be limited to around
3,000 bottles and priced at £49.99

Here's how it measures up...

Tomatin -  15 year old - 52% 

Nose: Initially a dry biscuity note, followed by some notes of icing sugar,
marzipan and meringue. Dig deeper and some raisin notes begin to emerge.
A drop of water offers some fresh plum notes, with a touch of aromatic tobacco.  

Palate: Hot without water, leading into notes of dryness, some liquorice /anise spice,
some green apple peel, a touch of lemon zest and more tobacco notes.
With a dash of water the mouthfeel gets a little richer, with vanilla cream, more meringue
notes, a hint of green banana and something a little soapy.

Finish:  Lingering notes of anise and cream.

Overall: Whilst this isn't in the same league as the wonderful Decades release,
it is still a solid whisky, with neither the Tempranillo wine, nor bourbon casks taking
a definitive lead.    For the money, it is extremely good value for money and
well worth seeking out. 

BiG Award 2011 the Winner is announced!

With the taste of 10 great whiskies still lingering in our mouths, we're pleased to announce the overall winner of this year's Best in Glass Award, which was no doubt, the biggest and best we've been involved with.

Not only was the competition extremely stiff between the ten short-listed whiskies, but the wealth of experience from our judging panel was a real force to be reckoned with.

Many thanks to our generous hosts The Albannach in London's Trafalgar Square for providing such excellent surroundings for the event and to the esteemed judges themselves for giving up their time and expertise.

This year's BiG Award panel consisted of the following keen noses and palates:

John Glaser, founder of Compass Box Whisky

Sam Simmons, The Balvenie Global Ambassador and the irrepressible Dr Whisky

Ed Bates, independent drinks consultant and former spirits expert for Berry Bros & Rudd.

Hannah Lanfear, bar manager of Boisdale, Canary Wharf

Ryan Chetiyawardana, manager of The Whistling Shop bar and cocktail maestro.

Ben Ellefsen, director of Master Of Malt

Darren Rook, former manager of the SMWS and now independent spirits consultant

Carey Willetts, bass player and songwriter with the UK band Athlete and whisky enthusiast.

Cat Spencer, marketing manager of The Albannach bar.

The ten whiskies were all judged blind, with three rounds to get down to our overall winning Best in Glass whisky.

So without further ado, the final 3 whiskies were as follows:

Ardbeg Alligator (highly commended)

Tomatin Decades (highly commended)

The 2011 Best in Glass Award winner goes to:

Black Bull 40 year old blended whisky - Batch 2

The panel were wowed by the balance of this superbly put together whisky, which demonstrated incredible fruit, vanilla and complex, aged oak notes, with a rich and highly moreish character. For a full review click here:

So it's congratulations to the team at Duncan Taylor. Once again, the BiG Award has demonstrated that it is possible to select 10 great whiskies, wildly differing in style, put them in the same room, with a bunch of like-minded imbibers and select an overall winner.

On receiving this year's award, Scott Watson, CEO for Duncan Taylor Whiskies commented:

“It’s tremendous to see Black Bull 40 year old recognised with a prestigious Best In Glass award from Caskstrength. To come out top in a blind tasting from such an esteemed panel of judges is a great honour and a fantastic testament to Black Bull’s boldly independent character."

Stay tuned for next year's awards....

You say Tomartin, We say Tomatin....

Friday morning has swung by again and my memory seems slightly fuzzy from our visit to one of London's hot new bars, The Mayor Of Scaredy Cat Town. Here, we find an innocent looking cafe/diner upstairs, with a rather over-sized Smeg fridge freezer. Surreptitiously beckon over the waiter and ask kindly to 'see the mayor' and the fridge door will swing back to reveal a hidden entrance to a Speakeasy basement bar...and its rather tasty, but ultimately lethal contents.

All of which brings me to today. As I wake up, something doesn't feel quite right. Sure, the brilliantly well made Manhattan's and a cigar are probably to blame, but although my voice sounds deeper and 'older', I look in the mirror and realise something is definitely wrong...

So today, until I've fully matured, Joel will have to tell you about today's whisky.

In fact, the brace of drams we're bringing you today are a particularly good example of genuine maturity, rather than dressing something up in an older set of slightly ill-fitting, oaky clothes.

Tomatin's Distillery manager Douglas Campbell is no stranger to maturing well. In fact, he's spent the last 50 years at the distillery, an hugely impressive feat in day and age. Douglas has selected a number of casks from the ageing stocks of Tomatin to produce their latest expressions, a 30yo bottling, matured from a mixture European and American oak and 'Decades' - combining casks from 1967, 1976, 1984, 1990 and a peated Tomatin from 2005 to mark such an outstanding length of service. Both releases will be available from later in July and are bottled at 46% ABV and come non-chill filtered.

Tomatin - 30 year old - 46% - NCF - 200 cases

Nose: Clean linen, followed swiftly by a highly perfumed wax note, some desiccated coconut, a hint of grain spirit and a big fat shot of ripe vanilla pod. The oak in there in abundance, but still restrained. With time, white chocolate and mocca notes begin to emerge and some fresh passion fruit. Very nicely balanced.

Palate: Creamy cereal, with red berries & vanilla ice cream. A tiny hint of sootiness creeps in as the palate dries, but this is pretty much all sweetness and light.

Finish: Drying oak notes, with an extended display from the cream.

Overall: Surprisingly fresh faced but still with all the hallmarks of a well aged whisky. The bourbon influenced oak has the upper hand here, over the European oak casks, but highly sippable and well developed.

Next up, a little look back through the distillery's history, courtesy of Douglas Campbell.

Tomatin - Decades - 46% - NCF

Nose: Sweet vanilla ice cream, butterscotch sauce, white lilies, some youthful, sweet grain whisky notes, marzipan and cherry sherbet.

Palate: The fruity, vanilla notes are carried over onto the palate, with buttery cream fudge, strawberries and cream, a light orange zest and the merest hint of peat. Light creamy and - to be brutally honest, absolutely delicious.

Finish: The creamy fudge notes coat the palate, with lingering light oak dryness. All really in balance.

Overall: An unexpected delight. We haven't reviewed that many Tomatin's here but here is a cracking brace, showing the quality of casks at the distillery's disposal and the very fact that knowledge, wisdom and dedication to the cause (from Mr Campbell) go a long way to producing some truly excellent whiskies.

Sweet Disposition

A few months ago, we ran a post on a rather unusual Bowmore from our friends at Master Of Malt. It was the sort of whisky that gets you in a right lather even after merely nosing it. In fact, it reminded us of that wonderful time gone by, when the school bell had just gone and you found yourselves racing towards the local corner shop, pockets full of coppers, fully intent on stocking up on as many tasty and probably tooth-rotting delights as you could carry. Ok we, may still be a little bit guilty of this, as may you.

Well hats off to MOM. They heard our inner call. We love sweets. Perhaps not as much as we love whisky, but enough to get excited at the picture at the top of this post.

For a limited time and in true Willy Wonka fashion, they're giving away a 'veritable cornucopia of old-fashioned sweeties' as well as a tasting glass with every bottle of Bowmore 26 yo. And as if that's not enough to excite you, they'll also throw in some rather grown up treats too, in the shape of samples from 3 of their other caskstrength whiskies - a 19yo Tomatin a 16 yo Tamnavulin and a 12yo Arran.

For our full tasting notes on the Bowmore, which came a handsome 2nd place in our recent BiG Awards, click here. For more information on the Bowmore offer and for further details about the other whiskies go to: MasterOfMalt.com

Don't forget your toothbrush folks!