Scotland, Speyside: Single malt whisky through the producing distilleries: history, making, production and tasting notes

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Tomatin

Description of the whisky

The distillery

Tomatin distillerie
Tomatin Distillery
Tomatin
Inverness-shire IV13 7YT
+44 1808 511 444
Owner: Takara Shuzo and Okura & Co Ltd.
Creation date 1897

photos

Created during the whisky boom by a group of businessmen from Inverness under the name of the "The Tomatin-Spey District-Distillery Co" in 1897, Tomatin has had hard times in the begin, and the distillery bankrupted in 1906.
The distillery was closed during both world wars, due to a lack of barley.
Between 1956 and 1974, the Tomatin distillery knew an exceptional growth. During this period, the number of still grew from 4 to 12. Despite this, the distillery bankrupted again in 1985, even if its production was about 9.000.000 litres a year.
Tomatin was taken over during the same year by the Japanese Takara, Shuzo & Okura (renown through the international hotel group) who added 9 new stills. Total stills is now 23, which makes Tomatin the biggest distillery of Scotland.
Nowadays, only half of the production capacity is used and the main part of the whisky is used in the blends of the group, called Big"T".

The whisky

A propos des notes de dégustation Your own tasting notes

List of the bottles

Description of the distillery

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 Tomatin: official bottlings
 

Tomatin 12 years
Age
 12 years
Alcohol
 40%
Bottler
 Official
=25 euros< 25 euros
 
The colour is gold, with bronze glints. The nose detects some malt, grapes and anise perfumes.
The taste confirms the smell, and is sweet with some caramel hints.
The finish is warm, spicy with ginger touches.

(la Maison du Whisky)

At the fist nosing, beyond any shadow of a doubt, a quality Speyside. A typical malted roundness. The impression in the palate is pleasant, round and not too complex. No big surprise, except that such a good malt is coming from the biggest distillery of Scotland, Not to much spices, but it is not a flat whisky neither. A short and discrete finish. A very good bottle, and an excellent quality-price ratio. 

The second tasting just confirmed the first one

The nose is rather complex, with some hints of malt and bee wax on a slightly spicy backgroune. The palate confirms the nose, with that impression of slightly spicy malt, very pleasant even if it is quite monotonous. A nice spicy and relatively long finish.
Quite a pleasant nose although relatively discrete. Light hints of toasted bread and malted barley and some floral notes.
The mouth is much the same as the nose was, dominated by cereals. No complexity and no originality. Just a pleasant whisky.
The finish is not too long and remains marked by cereal.
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 Tomatin: independant bottlings

Tomatin
1989
Signatory's Un-Chill filtered Collection
Age
 12 years
Alcohol
 46%
Particularities
 Non chill filtered
Bottler
 Signatory
=25 euros=25 euros
 
 
Tomatin's single malt is not the best known, even if it is coming from the biggest distillery of Scotland. Such a malt is often looked at with some suspicion. This is the wrong approach. The aromas of the non chill filtered version are wonderful. The spicy taste is very rich, with the additional character due to the filtration. The finish is very long and pleasant;

The second tasting just confirmed this bottle is a very good one. This kind of indefinable but very pleasant smell is still present, followed by a high degree of complexity in the palate... The exceptionally long finish crowns the whole.

At the third tasting, a doubt about this strange smell which could be described by wet earth clear floral hints is still present. Roses staying on wet earth for a while. In the palate, a very nice complexity, going from malt mixed with citrus fruits with clear bitter notes, unripe walnut, oak. A trip through all the range of possible tastes. A very nice finish, with still the presence of this bitter/flowery hints a chill filtration did not destroy. A very nice bottle.
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Tomatin
The Old Train Line, 30 years
1976-2007

Age
 30 years
Alcohol
 55%
Particularities
 Non chill filtration
Cask Strength
Bottler
 Jack Wieber
=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros
Tomatin 30 ans Jack Wieber
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Tomatin: samples

Tomatin
1984-2006
Daily Dram

Age
22 years
Alcohol
43%
Bottler
The Nectar/Bresser & Timmer
=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros< 25 euros
The nose seems to be strongly marked by cereals and some vanilla hints appear after a few moments of aeration. Some yeast fragrances too. Quite a nice nose, even if it is not really spectacular. The palate is pleasantly complex, on the same palette as the nose was. Cereal, vanilla, apple pie. Very well balanced and more than pleasant. The finish is as nice and voluptuous as the mouth and nose were. A very nice whisky, even if it misses some exuberance to deserve to be described as an excellent whisky.
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Speyside

Speyside Map

The Speyside area is situated at the North of the Cairngorm mountain and goes to the Moray firth. It is delimited by two rivers: the Findhorn at the West side and the Deveron on the East side.
The area is named after the river Spey. Most of the distilleries take their water in one of its affluents; the Fiddich, the Livet or the Avon.
About sixty distilleries from Speyside are described on this site.

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Click on the map for a list of the distilleries of the area, on the title for further information
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