Tomatin 30yo OB (official bottling) – 46% – Notes taken from live postings one evening on Twitter…

Tonight I’m blind tasting a Tomatin whisky. Strength, under 50%, so I’ll vote 46%, it’s peppery with a slight bite, that’d fit with that ABV. Colour is a light to medium gold, indicating bourbon maturation, and the nose seems to match that thought. It’s light & fruity, delightful! On the palate it’s got a full to medium oily mouthfeel, non chill filtered fits the bill. Sweet but full oak notes, plenty of bourbon, not quite the pure bourbon of the 25yo that I love, it’s that bit more fruity and juicy. It seems oldish, it’s smooth with a peppery ginger spice to it and a long fulfilling fruity finish. Yummy stuff! At a guess I’d say this is the 30yo [and it was!].

This is an excellent dram; for a pretty old whisky it’s full of life, it’s zingy and young in nature, sprightly some would say, although obviously behind the fun it’s a hugely well crafted and old gent of a whisky, it’s a bloke in his 50’s who’s brought an amazing new suit, got on a motorbike with it on and headed off to the beach and into the sunset. So cool.

Well priced, although I do lament the passing of the 25yo which was around £50 cheaper. However for 30yo, it’s still very well priced compared almost anything else around.

Limited to 2000 bottles a year, the Tomatin 30year old was initially matured in bourbon hogsheads before being finished for over three years in Oloroso sherry butts.

Generous sample kindly provided blind by Tomatin, and I’d also previously had a smaller sample with kind courtesy of Arkwrights Whisky & Wines.

Currently available at various places online including Arkwrights for £126 and The Whisky Exchange for £131.