Tomintoul 14yo
Official Bottling | 46% ABV
An Unexpected Sugar Rush From The Gentle Dram
In my Lochlea Sowing Edition: First Crop review I briefly mentioned my flying visit to the Gordon & MacPhail shop in Elgin, but the story behind that particular camper van trip travelled along many winding roads… and usually ended up with me staring forlornly at distilleries from the other side of locked gates.
This was simply a mixture of bad timing and the fact that many of Speyside’s finest distilleries simply aren’t open to the public – something of a missed trick when you consider the massive boom in whisky sales and the increasing number of visitors brought to Scotland by the lure of our national drink.
I was heartened, however, with recent news of the acquisition of the Tormore distillery by Elixir Distillers from the hands of Pernod Ricard, with plans being drawn up to refurbish this eye-catching distillery and finally open a visitor centre. My hope is that under the new ownership of Sukhinder and Rajbir Singh, the gem that is Tormore will finally have a chance to step out of the shadows and take its rightful place as one of Speyside’s great malts.
One distillery that is usually open, however, is Glenfiddich in Dufftown and I was looking forward to dropping in to have a look around the premises, perhaps take a wee tour, scoff a bit of lunch, drain a coffee and pick up a bottle to swig in the camper van in the evenings. However, it was my misfortune to trot along to the distillery the day before the Spirit Of Speyside whisky festival got underway. Workers were busy sprucing up the outside areas, repainting marker lines on the road and getting a huge marquee ready for the next day’s whisky-fuelled festivities. The result? Another closed distillery to tick off the list.
I should point out that when I booked time off work for this trip back in January, I hadn’t even considered the fact it coincided with the festival – I just threw dates at my boss as the holiday rota was already starting to fill up rapidly. I’ll plan better next time, I promise.
Distillery pictures taken, a downtrodden Clyde moped back into Dufftown proper and shuffled into the local Co-op supermarket to find sustenance. My spirits were lifted considerably when, munching my sandwich outside, I spotted The Whisky Shop Dufftown sitting neatly at the junction of Balvenie Street and Conval Street – two names that I’m sure will fire up any whisky fan visiting the area. This sight caused me to furiously cram the remnants of my lunch into my cakehole and march towards the shop, cheeks bulging with food like some sort of deranged chipmunk, frantically chewing as I reached the shop door.
This is a fantastic whisky shop that’s full of cracking bottles and a must visit if you’re in Dufftown. I was hunting for something easy to drink that would go down well in the confines of the van: no big ABV needed, just something to kick back with and enjoy while binge watching the BBC’s Ghosts sitcom on the iPad. A few days prior to my Dufftown visit, I had travelled to the sprawling Tomintoul distillery (it was closed, obviously but I did snap pictures of lots of barrels ) so I was drawn to a bottle of their 14 year old on the shelf.
It’s bottled at 46% and non chill-filtered, and although the blurb on the label talks about “natural characteristics” there’s no mention of whether the juice is natural colour. An inspection of the bottle suggests that if it is indeed coloured, then it’s been done with a gentle hand. Anyway, for around £50, a purchase was a no-brainer, so I put down my money and exited the shop – managing to swallow the last of my lunch as the door tinkled behind me.
Review
My experience with Tomintoul has been very limited down the years and I guess this is down to the fact my flavour chase has led me to explore more drams at 46% ABV or above, and many bottles of Tomintoul rock in around 40% or are NAS expressions such as the Tlàth and Seiridh. I’ve been tempted by the 16yo in the past, but its low ABV has always stayed my hand. Given its availability and decent price, maybe I should shove my prejudices aside and dive in and see what it’s like. But before I get round to dropping a bottle into my shopping basket, let’s properly kickstart my Tomintoul exploration with this 14 year old.
Tomintoul 14yo Official Bottling, 2019, Non-Chill Filtered, 46% ABV
£50 & wide availability
Nose
Floral and aromatic with digestive biscuits, vanilla, marzipan, grapefruit, orange rind, green apples and sour watermelon hard-boiled sweets. I get something akin to a sugar-coated donut and there’s barley sugars, golden syrup, red strawberry laces/strawberry gummy sweets and pink candy floss. Water brings out more of those floral notes and slightly reduces the sugary aspects.
Palate
Very sweet with apples and cinnamon spice. Cloudy apple juice, pink peppercorns, apple and blackcurrant concentrated fruit squash and barley sugars. Honeycomb on the finish. Water rounds things out, but it also adds more sourness and chilli spice to the mix and brings a slight liquorice note on the finish.
The Dregs
While there’s no cask information on the Tomintoul 14 label, I’d say this must have been plonked into bourbon wood for the majority, if not all, of its maturation. However, I find this particular whisky just too sweet for my palate. As someone with a sweet tooth and a penchant for all things bourbon matured, this is a puzzler and something I’ve struggled to get my head (and taste buds) around as the bottle’s gone down.
When it was first popped I really struggled with the sweetness and found it almost cloying on the palate. While writing my review, the bottle was a third down and things have calmed down a bit, but it remains a disjointed experience. Those ultra sweet notes continue to clash with the floral which results in a whisky that, while still enjoyable, is a one and done dram for old Clyde. Floral notes in whisky rarely sit well with me, so perhaps it was this interaction with the sweetness that made me struggle to fully engage with this dram. But at least Tomintoul is back on my radar and I’ll be giving the distillery some proper attention in the future.
Score: 4/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. CS