Review #3: Tomatin 1991/2013, C&S Dram Collection, 55.7%

hoping for 1976-lite

I think that one tries Tomatin hoping for some approximation of the fruitiness of the older ones, and usually ends up disappointed, finding something without even a family resemblance. But maybe this time ...

nose: briny and winey, with some green fruit peelings and wood. I think this is Manzanilla I'm nosing.
[checks: "Sherry Butt", cask #12488. I didn't realize that. It's pretty light colored, and I guess I was expecting a bourbon cask. Anyway, it could be from a manzanilla cask. Why don't they say that? I'd find that desirable, but not if I were expecting a PX cask ... "Sherry butt" really isn't that informative ...] After a few minutes, still briny, and aggressively grassy, but with some faint floral notes (meadow flowers) and just a bit of candied fruit. A tiny bit of maltiness. And is that smoke? Barrel char?

palate: soft for a split second, but then the sharp grassiness takes over. very green fruit.

finish: very long and strange. it starts off oily, becomes weirdly vegetal at some point (like a strange mix of herbs and peppery greens -- might be a tiny bit of meaty sulphur there, too), finds some vanilla along the way, and ends up salty. the faintest hint of fruit after all that has faded.


this is not at all what I expected. I expected either fruity or boring, but got weird instead. it's an interesting weird, and I'm happy to find a flor-sherry cask, if that's what this is, but it's not quite what I was looking for.


score: 82