Tomintoul 16yo
Official Bottling | 40% ABV
Score: 6/10
Good Stuff.
TL;DR
A tasty and rewarding dram if you’re willing to give it a chance.
Pitchfork for sale. Used - Good Condition
The whisky scene has changed dramatically over the last decade. I’m not just referring to all the shiny new distilleries that have cropped up, the expansion across other countries, but also how whisky is consumed – both physically and at an emotional level.
As with any hobby or passion, emotions can run high and knees often jerk at such pace and strength that orthopaedic specialists rub their hands in glee at the prospect of an early bonus.
Bottling strength, chill-filtration and E150a caramel colouring have long been in the firing line of many a whisky drinker and writer/blogger, and can often be a contentious topic. With this in mind, I’ll be checking outside my house through cracks in the blinds once this goes live.
I feel I can speak for the wider whisky drinking world when I say we all likely started on a relatively level playing field. Our first drams were likely those that can be found across the world and are instantly recognisable even to those that don’t drink the spirit. I’m not necessarily talking purely single malts either. I’m talking about the likes of Johnnie Walker, Whyte & Mackay, Monkey Shoulder, Glenfiddich and Glenlivet.
At some stage we will then have started to look further afield as we aimed to expand our knowledge – and soon discovered a new world of flavours, tastes, textures and colours. We were, to put it one way, hooked. Whisky is an incredibly varied and technical hobby. There are plenty of facts, figures and even friends to get your teeth into (I do not condone the latter in a literal sense).
With passion and emotion can come knowledge. With passion, emotion and a sprinkling of knowledge, comes opinion. With these combined, values or beliefs can follow. This is where things can start to get a little bit rigid. This might not be intentional, but there’s definitely a lot of both unconscious and conscious bias in the whisky drinking world and you don’t have to look far to see it.
“I can’t help but feel that as whisky anoraks we are guilty of treating certain distilleries or whiskies like the elderly relative that’s being handed over to the local nursing home.”
I can’t help but feel that as whisky anoraks we are guilty of treating certain distilleries or whiskies like the elderly relative that’s being handed over to the local nursing home.
Something that we used to actively engage with and were both happily entertained and delighted by, until other things that we felt became more important than this ‘got in the way’.
There’s a lot to be said for whiskies that are bottled at 40%, chill filtered or have colouring added. They’re arguably looked at as being, for want of a better word, ‘weak’. Not just in terms of alcoholic strength necessarily, but because they’re not represented as the truest form of themselves. On the contrary, far from being weak, they form the supportive backbone of the industry and have done for decades. Without blends such as Johnnie Walker, or single malts such as those in the classic malts range for example, the whisky industry as we know it today wouldn’t exist. It would be a fraction of the size and by default would automatically smother the ability for expansion and world acclaim. These whiskies helped build the foundations of the category.
Do the majority of whisky drinkers sitting in bars or living rooms around the globe care about chill filtration and added colouring? No. In many cases people don’t know what either is, and likely wouldn’t lose any sleep over it even if they did. On the flip side, you only need to look at the recent fallout of Glendronach removing ‘non-Chill Filtered’ from the box and label of the 15yr old to see how quickly the axles of the outcry bandwagon began to creak.
Sometimes I think we need to enjoy the now. Embrace anything and everything that whisky has to offer and not be too quick to judge based on appearance. We were taught from a young age not to do that weren’t we? So why should whisky be any different?
Admittedly I was guilty as anyone of this. While I did always have certain bottles I knew were subject to the processes of chill filtration and colouring, I only begrudgingly accepted it. My crusade for clarity knew no bounds, my altercation with filtration was heading to fisticuffs, and my undercover work against colour escalated. However, in recent years my pitchfork has been sitting in the corner gathering dust. All because I’m spending more and more time at the nursing home.
This brings me on to Tomintoul. A Speyside whisky often overlooked by ‘serious’ whisky drinkers due to a combination of the presentation of their whiskies and arguably its tagline of ‘The Gentle Dram’. Surely no whisky drinker who consumes Octomore direct through their eyeballs would even consider drinking something touted as the Gentle Dram?
Review
An honest Speyside whisky, 40% ABV
£43 widely available
Nose
This is initially quite soft. Milky coffee, fudge and baked pears open proceedings. A slightly grassy and floral element that’s somewhere between cut grass and new firewood then comes through. A touch of vanilla and honey are backed up by a slight herbaceous quality.
Palate
The palate is more upfront than the nose and, in my opinion, belies the strength. The body is better than expected also. Honey and toffee take centre stage before they’re followed by more of that pear from the nose before heading back again into sweeter territory. A whisper of milk chocolate (a Wispa technically then), digestive biscuit and more vanilla see things through to a medium length and increasingly sweet finish.
The Dregs
There are alternatives out there at this price bracket sure, but ultimately not everything boils down to facts, figures and the bottom line. I have enough of that during my working hours. Sometimes, it's about relaxing into it and seeing where you end up on life’s gentle stream, and I’d happily sit there with a glass of this in hand as I did.
Score: 6/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. LM
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