The Tomatin Distillery Story
A Scot on Scotch reports on a trip to the highlands and a 14-year-old Port Cask Tomatin single malt Scotch whisky.
Tomatin stands just off the A9, roughly between Aviemore and Inverness. Founded in 1897, the distillery has seen various owners come and go over the years but a period of stability in the 1950s kickstarted a massive expansion project. The pot stills increased from a single pair to an outrageous total of 23! Such incredible growth made Tomatin the largest malt distillery in Scotland at the time, with a capacity of 10 million litres per year. The distillery never ran at full capacity, however.
The 1980s saw production grind to a halt as a result of an industry-wide slump but the distillery was plucked from oblivion when two of its Japanese customers merged to buy the site and its stock. The new owners rolled back much of the expansion, leaving the distillery to operate well within a capacity of 5 million litres per year.
I paid a visit to Tomatin in June and found it in complete contrast to Dalwhinnie which I had visited a few days earlier. Where Dalwhinnie is quaint and charming, Tomatin is industrial and, to put it politely, functional. Where Dalwhinnie consists of white-washed buildings and Pagoda roofs, Tomatin is hulking and grey, albeit no less impressive, in its own, imposing way.
They say it’s what’s inside that counts and my tour showcased a vast, yet attractive, distillery. These tours tend to follow the same basic path but often there are quirks in proceedings that are unique to each distillery and that make the visit worthwhile. At Tomatin, you can even stand inside a disused mash tun. A new and fun experience for me.
The tour concludes with a tasting line-up consisting of six single malts produced on-site. It started with Legacy, followed by the 12-year-old. Then came the Cask Strength expression before the new 14-Year-Old Port Cask. The session culminated in the 18-Year-Old and heavily peated Cu Bocan. The quality on offer was impressive throughout, though I confess to feeling a little bit rushed during the tasting. It was a very busy day at the distillery, with tourists seeming to arrive in a constant convoy of coach tours and staff were pressed to wrap things up and get on with their next tour. That’s understandable and our guide Becky did the best she could in the time allowed, guiding us through the distillery and introducing all six drams. Still, you don’t necessarily feel like a valued customer when you’re being asked to chug six drams in 30 minutes. Back at the visitor centre, I settled, after much deliberation, on a bottle of the afore-mentioned 14-Year-Old Port Cask edition, bottled at 46% abv.
Tomatin 14-year-old Port Casks Review
Smell: Raspberries, cranberries and orange with malty biscuit, toffee, chocolate coated nuts. For some reason, nosing a Port Cask finish always reminds me of furniture polish.
Taste: Berries and bitter dark chocolate, pepper and some chilli powder with orange, star anise, cinnamon and toffee.
Thoughts: The bottle cost me around £50. That’s not a bad sum for a 14-year-old bottled at 46%. I’m also a fan of port cask finishes so this one appealed to me right away and I can’t say I was disappointed. Tomatin can be quite a light single malt and a big, powerful cask could quite easily swamp it but while the port influence isn’t exactly subtle, it stops short of being too dominant. There’s good intensity to the flavour and it comes at a reasonable price. One of the best I’ve come across from Tomatin.
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