2x Tobermory 1972 IB Reviews

Hi everyone,

So I’ve recently been at two festivals with some awesome whisky. First was Whisky in Leiden where I tasted this first Tobermory 1972, I then tasted another one in Limburg the other day. Tasting it, I thought ‘I bet this is a sister cask,’ and as it turned out it was distilled on the same day!

At that point in Tobermory/Ledaig history the distillery was still called Ledaig and it had just been brought back from being closed for 42 years.

Tobermory 1972 Alembic 49.6%

Colour: Dark Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Full rich old school Sherry, deep perfume, slightly earthy with mud, lovely floral notes, really complex, slight medicinal note, cinnamon and raisins. AMAZING nose.

Taste: So soft, sweet Sherry, rich fruit, fig, honey, beeswax, orange peel, floral then a little soapy, the mouthfeel is a bit off too. Oak in there as well. Time in the mouth is what it needs to reveal its full complexity.

Finish: Long length. Agh, soapy with the Sherry trying and failing to pull it up. Very late it succeeds with the help of a medicinal twang. More earthy then as it opens up.

Many thanks go to Bram of the whisky nerds bottler for this sample from a little 20cl bottle bottled in 2006 at 33yo. The soap does tone down after a bit but old Tobermory/Ledaig was always known to be hit or miss with many misses and few hits!

85/100

 

Tobermory 1972 Whisky Doris 49.4%

Colour: Dark Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Deep and rich, a soapy note like 'love hearts,' parma violets, dark prune and fig, raspberry, sticky sweet, coffee beans, black cherry.

Taste: So soft then builds waves of sweetness and old oak, black coffee, stewed raisin, prune, rich spices then drier into the finish. Mouthfeel is a bit off again.

Finish: Long length. Black dark oak and chocolate notes, black coffee.

Bottled 35yo. With water the nose opens up and you get more Sherry but the taste becomes more soapy.

82/100

Distillery: Tobermory

Average Score: 80.0

Distillery Ranking: 9th/ 61 places

Up/Down: Down 1 (8>9)

Thanks for reading!

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Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

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