Tomatin 21 Year (Limited Edition)

A nice dram; surely it doesn't feel like a 52%abv whisky, smooth and sweet, easy to drink, but i would say it is inferior to the 18yo one. On the nose, hair spray or "gel", Coffee, Hazelnut, Toffee. A little simple but it works. On the palate, starts with brown sugar to develop a pepper bomb, very powerful and oaky too. Finish is short and that is not good news for a 52%abv dram with 21yo. Overall, this is a easy enjoyable dram, 85 over 100 is a fair score for it.

Hmm interesting a loaded entry with no official or unofficial rating. Lucky for Distiller I have the missing piece...a sample of the dram itself! Even without water its a good one. Toffee, vanilla, caramel, hint of sherry, toasted oak. Even with liberal doses of water it's still a bit "burny" for the abv but that still doesn't detract that much from the great casking. Interestingly the 14 year I had a while back was the same..only 46% but burnt the hair off your chest a bit. The port casking just couldn't hold its own. Based on the two samples I'm thinking their casking policy is very good just not sure about the underlying spirit. Out of interest does anyone know why some drams run a lot hotter than others? e.g. two drams with the same ABV but one just seems like it's much stronger alcohol % than the other? Anyhow I'm loving this more and more and I understand now why LeeE loves this brand. I'm wishing I added water in the 14 yr port sample to see how that evolved but often I find they just fall apart at the lower abv level so I refrained. Anyhow back to the whiskey. This is at least 4.25 maybe 4.5. Very nice drop.