A story about collecting Tomatin 25 year old expressions
The Tomatin highland malt distillery in the little settlement of the same name, creates a wonderful whisky. Known for decent, strong Highland malt at a younger age, but loved for the elegant fruity explosions you can find in whisky matured for at least 20 years. Located not far from Inverness and high up in the mountains, I proudly rank it among my favourite distilleries. In the early days of being a whisky enthusiast and (modestly) a collector, the number of Tomatin bottles were always in a ratio 3 to 1 compared to other bottles. A personal favourite from the distillery itself (because the independents had some excellent picks as well) was the Tomatin 25 year old in the red tube. Distilled in early December 1978, this bottle filled the shelves of many a retailer for quite some years. The delicate and tropical fruitiness still makes me smile.
As it turns out, Tomatin’s Global Brand Ambassador Scott Adamson tells me he also has a special relationship with the Tomatin 25 year old, be it the follow-up expression in a big, silvery-grey box. I sent him an e-mail to chat about this particular aged Tomatin after acquiring the missing piece in my collection: the first Tomatin 25 year old, bottled in the early 1990s, and rumoured to be a 1966 vintage. Scott replied: “What a great find! Glad you managed to get your hands on it. Bottlings like this fascinate me, they are limited editions from a time when the distillery’s focus was still very much on supplying whisky to blenders; makes you wonder why they went to the effort.”
Scott goes on to shed some light on the bottlings, not least the last regular available one: “Following the 1992 bottling, the 25 year old became part of the Tomatin core range in August 2004 (red label). The range was rebranded in 2009 and the 25 year old continued to be part of the range for a short while (silver label). Coincidentally this version is my favourite whisky ever, it’s the whisky I drank on my wedding and when both my sons were born.”
Whisky is always about memories, as you can see. Scott gives a nice insight into how brands develop their age-stated offerings. He continues: “In June 2011 the 25 year old was replaced by the 30 year old. The reason for this is that Tomatin went into liquidation on the 15th of January 1985 and, although it was reopened a year later, production remained very low until the late 1980s. Stock from Tomatin from the early 1980s is exceptionally rare. The Tomatin 30 year old was incredibly well received and, as a result, we never went back to the 25. That’s not to say that we will not bottle a 25 year old again in the future; anything is possible. But, at the time of writing, it is not something that is being considered.”
We will patiently wait Scott! And I am trying to forget that he crushed my satisfaction. I thought I now owned all officially released 25 year old expressions. But he let me know that “[your] quest to own every Tomatin 25 year old goes on. The pictured 25 year old Limited Edition was released in 2020, although it was bottled exclusively for China so that may be your get out clause…” Well, if anybody Chinese is reading this little blog, and might own this bottle… reach out!
Thanks for reading this story about my personal quest about collecting whisky. I would like to end with a tasting note of a Tomatin vintage that mentions it is “over 25 years old” on the label. I do not consider this an official 25 year old, since Tomatin decided to present this as a vintage. I am sure this has to do with the fact they used port pipes in the batch, which probably were only filled in that year. When looking at the laser code on the bottle, this whisky could indeed even be 26 years old. Tasting note below, enjoy!
Tomatin 1988, over 25 years old, bottled at 46 % abv
Makeup: Matured in a combination of bourbon casks and port pipes. Batch 1 consists of 2500 bottles, bottled in April 2014.
General impressions: Lovely nose on an abundance of red fruits, strawberry dominating but also a lot of forest fruits and tea based on those aromas. Indeed, some smoky tea leaves. Did Tomatin also put in some production from peated batches here? There is a certain smoky note to be found. Makes for some nice complexity. After some breathing, I detect some citrus notes, maybe even oranges. I conclude my long description of the smells with a hint of watermelon sugar (high!).
Let's take a sip.