Scotch Whisky Review #147: Tomatin 14 Year Port Casks

Distillery: Tomatin

Region: Highland

Price: Many thanks to a very secretive Santa

Cask Type: Matured in a combination of Bourbon barrels and Port casks

ABV: 46%

Age: 14 Year

Color: 1.2, Chestnut/Oloroso Sherry.

Nose: (according to the wife) It really sweet. There’s a lot of grapes and a very sweet white wine note up front. It’s followed by raisins and honey.

Palate: It starts off with a lot of fruit with a mix of red berries and cherries. Following the fruit comes some toffee and turbinado sugar. Towards the back end, there’s a few aromatic notes in licorice and something that reminds me of balsamic vinegar.

Finish: On the shorter side of things. It’s slightly bitter and very peppery. There’s a bit of an ethanol burn as well that’s not particularly nice.

Conclusion: Happy (belated) New Year and New Decade to you all! We got home the other day to see that we’d received a very lovely gift from Santa while we were away. I’ve not had a lot of Tomatin and this one really shows me that I probably should look into them some more. It’s a really lovely dram. It starts off really fruity with the grapes and berries in the nose and palate. It then turns to a few more aromatic notes in licorice and balsamic. The finish is a little bit of a let down, with that bitter note and the ethanol burn, but I’ve got a feeling that a lot of that will go away after some air time. Would I buy a bottle? Yes.

Final Score: 80.

Scotch Whisky Review #147, Highland Review #33, Whisky Network Review #195

Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection (if feasible).
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
• Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.