Stop number 56 on the SDT is Tomatin. Tomatin is a Highland distillery known for producing good single malts at a spectacular price. This 12 year old is a cask strength, single cask hand picked by the liquor super store Ace Spirits in Minnesota. Cask number 1833, bottle number 24 of 210. Distilled in 2002, bottled in 2014. 53.1% ABV and being cask strength I would venture a guess that it is non chill filtered and natural color. This is a light golden straw. I’ve tried 3 Tomatin 12 year olds before, the older sherry finished version, the newer “Bourbon and Sherry Cask” version, and the limited French Oak version. Let’s see how this one compares. Heavy floral notes dominate the nose, so much so that I immediately likened it to a barrel aged gin. Light oak, pine and a lemony citrus. Seriously gin-like. Vanilla custard, very light butterscotch and toffee. A candy like sweetness emerges, but its weak and covered in flower petals. After a good long while in the glass some sherry notes appear in the form of a maple syrup like sweetness. A tad nutty with some pears and cinnamon. Decided to add water to see if the higher ABV was masking everything I remember from the standard 12. Water adds more sherry oak and fruit and some honey comes in, but it does nothing to tame the heavy floral notes. Like the nose, the palate has a huge floral hit up front. Again, very gin-like. Peppery sherried oak and a lemon/pine citrus. Cinnamon, pears and little bitterness. Water drowns out everything but the floral and pine notes, making it feel even more like a gin. Medium to full bodied mouthfeel. A light oiliness, mouth coating and mouthwatering. The finish is quite short, floral, a touch bitter and dry. This is so very different than the other 12 year olds I’ve had from Tomatin. It’s also a disappointment as far as cask strength scotches go. Hard to rate this one as it doesn’t really feel like a scotch. More like a scotch-gin hybrid. Well priced for a single cask, cask strength though at only $43, which is only $10 more than their standard 12 version, but it’s just not what I’m looking for in a scotch. A solid 3. Thanks for the sample Lee, it was a unique experience for sure. Cheers