Tomatin 1995 + 36 Reviews: TWE Show Report

Hi everyone,

Got some Tomatin today. I had only tried the Tomatin Legacy, the basic NAS version, before going to the show and didn’t really seek these out to try them. Rather, the Tomatin’s came to me to be tried.

I know at least one person who really rates Tomatin as one of the best, but to me it was just another quiet Highland malt. They’ve kind of ramped up the marketing recently though, changing the bottle shape and expanding the range.

So, both of these were tasted right at the end of the first day at The Whisky Exchange Show London, after 38 other whiskies. I was standing by the Balblair table trying the 1983 (coming up), chatting to some friends by the Tomatin table next door. 

Suddenly they call last pours and all hell breaks loose with people running about to retry their favourites before the end. I knew I had the next day, so wasn’t too bothered but decided to try a Tomatin while I was at the stand.

 

Tomatin 1995 Sherry Finish 46%

Colour: Light Amber

Body: Medium

Nose: Sherry, vanilla, oak and a slightly sulphur-y note, like melting rubber.

Taste: Soft, easy style. Sherry, raisin, oak, fresher fruit coming in but then lots of oak.

Finish: Medium length. Oak, Sherry and sulphurous rubber.

This is 21 years old and finished for the final 3 years in Oloroso Sherry Hogsheads. Unfortunately, the sulphury side of the Sherry is coming out and it’s a little too oaky for my taste.

74/100

And then, just when I thought it was all over, a gem fell into my lap. A friend of a friend, literally someone I barely knew passed me a glass and told me to try it. It was lovely, but he then told me that it was his Dream Dram for the day! A guy I hardly knew, sharing his best whisky of the day. What a guy.

Tomatin 36 Batch 2 46%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Incredible fresh fruit, amazing balance.

Taste: Fresh fruit, tropical fruit, balanced oak and spice.

Finish: Long length. Oaky and tropical.

Sorry for the short notes but a really, really good one. Wasn’t expecting this in so many ways, a wonderful whisky. Of course, the price is high too (£500).

87/100

Thanks for reading! More to come of course, still got about 20 reviews to go from the show.

Reviews #241-#242

Network Average: 75.9

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 44

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just about OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ magnificent