Tomatin Distillery has launched a new peated whisky expression called:

Cù Bòcan

It comes with a spooky backstory as such:

Cù Bòcan has stalked residents of the remote Highland village of Tomatin for centuries, his legend embellished by the hellhound’s increasingly fractious behaviour.

Sightings are rare, once in a generation, always terrifying. A distillery worker, out walking late, was once relentlessly pursued by an imposing black beast, steam spiralling from flared nostrils, teeth bared.

Compelled beyond all natural reason to feel the hound’s dense fur he stopped and reached out, hand trembling, only to see the ghostly spectre – Cù Bòcan – dissolve before his eyes leaving nothing but a vacuum of deathly silence and an inky blue cloud of smoke, soon spirited away across the peat moorland…

It’s non chill-filtered has no added colouring and is 46% ABV with no age statement. However the peated malt we’re told is just under 8 years old and this will get older in coming batches.

It’s a lightly peated (15ppm) single malt matured in a combination of Virgin Oak, Bourbon and Sherry casks. It’s a batch release of 60,000 litres per year.

When experimenting with different recipes 2 options were presented to the distillery staff to make the final decision.

It was launched via Twitter using the hashtag #CuBocan at 7pm on the 3rd Sept 2013, and I was lucky enouogh to get to review it at that time… my notes on it were as follows:

Colour: Light clear and bright gold.

Nose: Buttery, light and distinctly Tomatin in nature, but with a back note of smoke… A light highland smoke, not a heavy costal Islay peat smoke. Vanilla and fresh citrus notes.

Palate: Buttery and light, but nicely mouth coating. A slight pinch of pepper and spices, but balanced back again quickly by more creamy vanilla notes and some late summer fruits.

Finish: A medium length helped by the creamy oils leaving their sweetness over your palate. Whiffs of smoke hang around for a while reminding you that they’re there.

Thoughts: This is what many have been waiting for, a peated Tomatin! It’s not exactly what we were maybe expecting, and it’s probably better! Well done Tomatin. Easily accessible to those who don’t generally like peat. Great bottle shape, nice and contemporary.

Available from The Green Welly Stop for £39.00.
Also from The Whisky Barrel for £39.52.

Thanks to Tomain for the sample.