Tomatin Oloroso cask 50% ABV from Skene finest scotch whiskies.

Distilled 2015, bottled 2020, Ex Oloroso sherry cask.

Appearance

Light to mid gold in colour, bubbles appear when first poured. The swirl line on my Copita glass is a mixture of a medium thick line and beads, which drop slow thin legs.

Nose

Oooh, this one kicks off a little differently to many, with old style hubba bubba chewing gum, red jelly beans, rose water and a perfume aroma.

More time and that sweetness is still very much evident, but now those darker fruits and heavier notes are also coming through. Raisins, figs and dark plums, with more wood develop, a slightly botanical aroma, with cranberries. 

Palate

The mouthfeel is rather nice, it’s quite oily, and the Oloroso spices are all over the palate straight away. Figs, cloves, 5 spice, and black peppercorns, there’s lots going on.

Syrup from a can of fruit cocktail brings a lovely sweetness too, it plays so well against the darker fruits and chocolate that I’m getting now. Cigar leaves and dunnage, with mocha and hot chocolate powder finish the bulk of the palate.

Finish

The finish is quite long, those sherry spices are loitering around, and I’m getting dark chocolate orange now, the zestiness is lovely. There may be some used cap gun caps here too, but it’s very faint.

My thoughts

This bottling is still around, and it’s around £37, that’s nuts, that a whisky that has such a wonderful nose and super developing palate, says rather a lot in the current whisky market. The nose is one of the best iv’e personally come across, and the palate does develop quite a bit, from sweetness to darker heavier notes.

Sean who sent me this knows his whisky, we’ve swapped drams a few times now, and he always sends me really great drams. When i checked this whisky out for price etc i did wonder exactly what it’d bring as it is so affordable. Turns out it can offer more than some drams that are twice the price or more, i’m very happily surprised, and i like that, just when i think the world of whisk(e)y has gone completely insane.

A big thank you goes out to my whisky friend Sean – @RockNRolla60 from Twitter for the generous sample, he, along with us, can be followed using the buttons below.