Tomatin 15 Years Old (G&M)

Gordon & MacPhail selected this Tomatin, a 15 year old Highland malt and bottled at 43%. Tomatin is a Highland single malt distilled in the hills south of Inverness, where the distillery was founded in 1897. Today it works twelve stills, having shifted from blend volume to single malt.

The spirit was distilled from unpeated malt in copper stills on Allt na Frithe water, giving the light, mellow spirit at its heart. A refill bourbon cask held it, keeping the fruit to the fore. Past a decade the fruit deepens into honey, apple and a soft spice. Years in oak round the spirit, the orchard fruit deepening with age. Tomatin stands at over three hundred metres, among the highest in the land. An old cattle drovers' road ran through Tomatin, and whisky was made here long before the distillery. The arrival of the Highland Railway in the 1890s made the distillery possible. It closed in 1906 and reopened in 1909, finding its feet over the following decades.

At an easy 43% it is light. Apple, pear and a soft honey, and the ex-Bourbon lends vanilla and a soft honey. A dried fruit and a soft oak give it depth. Apple, honey and a soft oak see out the finish. This is a mellow Highland single malt from near Inverness.