Tomatin 1976 / 30 Year Old / Oloroso Sherry Finish

Vegetal with notes of juniper, cabbage, and cooked carrots start us off. A sherry-influenced sweetness follows with beer nuts, cashews, and fruit preserves. Pops and squeaks of lime, chocolate wafers, and nutmeg. Big oak, too, adding a solid spine to it all.

Immeasurable honey, toffee, and a sturdy green stalk bitterness that holds it together. Sweet buttered corn. Autumnal with leaves and oak. Ginger and lime. Exciting.

SUMMARY:

Alive and well after 30 years (like some of our best friends), this dram speaks volumes and has something new to show on each sip. Vivid. Engaging. Powerful. And the sherry finish does nothing to mute the notable distillery character. A brave success.

[These notes are reproduced from drwhisky.blogspot.com]

Bold and spicy, but with enough backbone to handle it. Surely the most intense of the bunch overall. (The 25 year old is dry on the palate—especially on the finish—but the 30 year old challenges you the throughout.) There’s plenty of oak here, imparting leather, resin, and dried spice notes (cinnamon, clove, vanilla), but it is rescued by sherried fruit, honeyed citrus, and toffee. A powerful dram.

Advanced Malt Advocate magazine rating: 87

Nose:  Vegetable notes, some cooked cabbage (sulphur) to start. Quickly into toasted nuts, hazelnut sweetens. Green woods. Crisp with chocolate bourbon biscuits.  Excellent.

Palate:  All cut flowers, citrus peels. Quite a change from the nose, raspberry leaf. An intriguing rose petal dried character, little lychee. Fine tannic grip.

Finish:  Ginger root.

Comments:  Real character and finesse.

Score: 8.9/10

[These tasting notes are reproduced from Whisky Magazine Issue 74]

Nose: Malty and citrussy. Candied lemon. Opening on more fruit. Redcurrant jelly, a touch of blackcurrant.  Getting toffe-ish. Quite complex.

Palate:  Lusciously flowing on the tongue. An outburst of passionfruit and blackcurrant in a spicy syrup.

Finish:  Warm, vibrant, spicy with a malty aftertaste.

Comment:  Rich and complex old fellow. Has kept all his buoyancy and liveliness.  So different from the 1967.

Score: 8.7/10

[These tasting notes are reproduced from Whisky Magazine Issue 74]