Tobermory 14 Years Old 2005 Cask #DL 13512 (Old Particular)

Douglas Laing bottled this Tobermory, a 14 year old island malt from 2005, drawn from cask DL 13512 and bottled at 48.4%. The outturn was 300 bottles. Tobermory is the unpeated single malt of Mull's only distillery, founded in 1798 in the island's painted harbour town. It is one of Scotland's oldest distilleries, and the only one on its island.

It was drawn off stills with their S shaped lyne arms, for a medium bodied, fruity spirit. Maturation came in ex-Bourbon wood, vanilla under the orchard fruit. Mid age brings a deeper honey and a riper, waxy fruit. Sea air works into the island maturation, lending a faint saline lift. Burn Stewart revived production in 1993, and Distell bought the distillery in 2013. The stills carry boil bulbs and a kink in the lyne arms, which lifts the reflux. Water is drawn from a private hill loch, the Gearr Abhainn, above the town.

At cask strength 48.4% it is muscular. Green apple, citrus and a herbal lift, and the ex-Bourbon lends vanilla and a soft honey. The texture is oily and waxy, the fruit threaded through. A long, oily finish ends on orchard fruit. This is Tobermory's oily, unpeated island single malt.