Tobermory 21 Years Old 1996 (Cadenhead’s)

This Tobermory was from the independent bottler Cadenhead's, a 21 year old island malt from 1996 and bottled at 53%. The outturn was 288 bottles. Tobermory is the fruity, unpeated side of the only distillery on the Isle of Mull. It is one of Scotland's oldest distilleries, and the only one on its island.

It was run through the distillery's boil ball stills, to build a nutty, waxy, fruity character. Ex-Bourbon casks held it, soft oak that lets the waxy fruit lead. Past twenty years the spirit turns honeyed and waxy while keeping its fruit. The waxy, oily spirit takes on cask character slowly and holds its texture well. 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. Its painted home town gives the unpeated malt its name. A rare, more heavily peated make has appeared under the name Iona, after a neighbouring isle.

At 53%, undiluted, it is rich and deep. A waxy, oily fruitiness, and the bourbon cask adds vanilla and a gentle honey. Beneath it run orchard fruit, wax and a soft nut. The close is long, fruit over a soft oak. This is the waxy, fruity malt of Mull.