Tomatin 30 Years Old 1988 Cask #6642 (Connoisseurs Choice)

Single malt Tomatin, an independent Gordon & MacPhail bottling, a 30 year old release from 1988, drawn from cask 6642 and bottled at 59.2%. Only 199 bottles were released. Tomatin is the soft, fruity Highland malt of a distillery founded in 1897 near Inverness. By 1974 Tomatin ran twenty three stills and was the largest malt distillery in Scotland.

It was run through the distillery's onion stills after a long fermentation, to build a fruity, gently spiced character. It rested in ex-Bourbon oak for a honeyed sweetness. Decades leave it deep and gentle, candied fruit and a waxy honey with great age. The soft, fruity spirit takes cask character readily across maturation. 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.

Bottled at a cask strength 59.2%, it is rich. Orchard fruit and a gentle malt, and ex-Bourbon oak gives vanilla and a light apple. It is gentle and fruity, the soft spirit shining through. A fruity, lightly spiced finish lingers. This is the soft, fruity Highland malt of Tomatin.