Tomatin Legacy vs Tomatin 18 yo
There’s an old theory the whisky companies tried to perpetuate some years ago, that people come to whisky through the gentle lowlanders first and then take baby steps before arriving in Islay. Well, I know a lot of people started out with Laphroaig and Lagavulin as I did, and while it’s great to marvel in the massiveness of these monsters, I did eventually realize the downside was that I came late to the intricacies of more subtle whiskies like Littlemill and Rosebank … and Tomatin even, which in as much as it is what they call a blending beast, can produce some excellent malts on the lighter fruitier side of the scale.
Tomatin Legacy 43% ~2013
Nose: A profile we are familiar with, if you have tried enough young malt, where the malt itself is fairly decent. Cut pears and flints. Some eau de vie alcoholic heat. Grass and a stack of new A4 paper. A bit of ink as well. Then lots of that fresh bourbon barrel effect. New oak. Simple and unsurprising, but not a bad one if you take competitors into account.
Palate: New bourbon. Lots of it. Shows itself to be quite spirity and tad raw on the tongue now. Splintered wood, flints, cut grass and clay, so much in line with a young highlander. Unripe pears, uncooked grains. Also a little oat dust. Light and thin, and quite high toned. Really an infant of a whisky.
Finish: Medium short, chalky, rather raw with lots of astringent ‘unripe’ notes. Nose was not bad at all, just that the palate revealed its youth. “Okay”.
Tomatin 18 yo 43% ~2013 batch
You know, some 70s and 80s Tomatins could be rather good.. but what’s happening in 1995?
Nose: Rather elegant, neither heavy or unbalanced. Though it’s true the woodiness is rather loud – charred oak, thick resin crusting on old oak. Hot charcoal. Dark woody spices that are pungent and dry rather than apple pie, like black pepper, cardamom and mace. No sugar or cinnamon. Burnt smoking marmalade. Barest touch o medicated spirits. A rather thin but clear spirit like a thin white oil, far more ethereal than chunky.
Palate: All going south real quick. A lot of extractive oak. Like they used this to rinse out Jack Daniel’s charcoal stacks. Big oak tannins! Strangely all that without any soothing sweetness from the sherry. What sherry? Now becoming exceedingly leathery – burnt leather, bitter tannins, it’s all wood. Complete capitulation by the spirit. Big hot pungent dry spices again.
Finish: Medium, dry and pungently spicy. Lots of char and tannins. What happened?
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