Tobermory Batch 15 (TBWC)

Single malt Tobermory, an independent That Boutique-y Whisky Company bottling, a 12 year old release and bottled at 50.3%. A release of 408 bottles. Tobermory is the unpeated malt of the island's only distillery, founded in 1798 by John Sinclair. 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. Maturation came in ex-Bourbon wood, vanilla under the orchard fruit. Around the mid teens the malt gains a fuller, waxier body. The unpeated make leans on the cask, the wood adding much of the colour and flavour. The distillery's history is broken by long silences; its buildings once stored a local cheddar. 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.

Undiluted at 50.3%, it is powerful. A waxy, oily fruitiness, and vanilla and a soft oak come from the bourbon wood. The texture is oily and waxy, the fruit threaded through. The finish is deep, waxy and nutty. This is the waxy, fruity malt of Mull.