Tomintoul 25 Year

Nose: huge bowl of fresh cut autumn apples, lemon, sour grapes, bid of honey, very fresh and not at all mature or settled as you would expect from a 25y. Palate: hard arrival with a fresh fruity sourness and light chili burn. Herbal tea aromas along with a woody bitterness reminding me of mate-tea. It sadly is not very pleasant. I mean, it definitely is interesting and has some impressive fullness with a long aftertaste, but I would never have guessed 25y age. It feels and tastes like one of the many popular NAS whiskies from oh so many distilleries these days with 3 to 7 years in one or two large casks. Those aren’t bad at all but this Tomintoul here is missing a twist or convincing character - it doesn’t deliver that and so for me it is just a fairly normal dram with nothing special or something to remember it for. Strange but glad I had it. Worth a try - for me not worth a whole bottle.

I'm surprised at this one. The sample I have is not a gentle dram at all. Now it's no (typical) Mortlach in profile but its rich, robust and flavorful. Toffee, Caramel, cinnamon, dark fruits and more. Very nice dram. The finish is shortish and initially very slightly harsh which detracts from the experience but it makes you want to take another hit to get the full experience one again. In time that to fades and it becomes a more balanced. Definitely changed my opinion of Tomintoul 180 degrees.

Excellent

N - 84: Mild fruits and spices. T - 85: Very weak flavours, no complexity. Seems like a watered down Glenlivet 18. F - 87: Nice finish but not flavours. 85.33/100