tomatin 2009 (10Y) highland scotch whisky 46% ABV

Woohoo!!

It’s the weekend everyone, I hope that you’ve all had a tremendous week!

I’ve had a decent week to be fair, I have been going out for daily walks, just so that I can enjoy the fresh air, I’ve also been doing some bits of Christmas Wrapping (which is early for me).

Finally, I’ve been concentrating on my blog and bringing it back up to scratch, and I am hoping that you as my followers are enjoying all of my content.

I am really looking to bringing you this post, which is on an outstanding whisky called: Tomatin 2009 Aged 10 Years!

So sit back, relax and enjoy!

History

The first question you are probably wondering is where Tomatin is distilled, well the easy way to answer that is The Tomatin Distillery!

It actually gets even easier than that, I’ll tell you why shortly!

The Tomatin Distillery was founded in 1897, however, research suggests that whisky has been distilled on the site since the 16th century, but this no links to The Tomatin Distillery.

As I mentioned earlier, another interesting fact about this distillery is that its located in the village of Tomatin, which is approximately 25 minutes south of Inverness.

At the start of business, the company was under the name as The Tomatin Spey Distillery Ltd, sadly the company went bankrupt in 1906. This was only for a couple of years, in 1909 it reopened under new owners.

This new ownership lasted until 1986 when once again, the owners went into liquidation!

Finally, at the end of 1986, the company was taken over by a Japanese Conglomerate (Takara Shuzo), the business was renamed to The Tomatin Distillery Co Ltd!

Still, to this very day, The distillery still belongs to this extraordinary Japanese Company and the distillery has proven to be ever so popular.

Tomatin Distillery – Photo credited by Whisky.com 

Just look how beautiful this distillery looks, situated in a small village in the countryside of Scotland, that’s the life that you want!

I bet the smells of whisky being distilled is absolutely gorgeous, I wish I was there now!

Now, up until around 1958, the distillery was operated with two stills, due to an increase in demand and sales, further stills were added to support production capacity. This demanding distillery was eventually producing 12.5 Million litres of whisky per year during the 1970s.

By 1987, The Tomatin Distillery was referred to as the largest malt distillery in the whole of Scotland, in my mind I just think that is astonishing to see, especially what happened with the previous owners, this is just pure dedication.

During the 1980s, the distillery decided to dismantle some of there stills, as capacity dropped to 5 million litres of whisky per year, then by 2007, it further dropped to 2.5 million litres of whisky per year!

It’s a real shame to see the capacity dropping, but like most businesses, you can’t just give up, I do still believe Tomatin will be back on top of Scotland distilleries once again.

A lot of distilleries, do something called Blended Whisky, this is where the distilleries own whisky recipe is blended and mashed with other whiskies, these other whiskies can be referred to as less expensive spirits.

Believe it or not, around 80% of Tomatin’s Whisky goes into a blended whisky, some of these brands include Antiquary and Talisman.

The Tomatin 2009 whisky though is not blended instead, it’s special for another reason and here’s why!

The reason is that my Tomatin Whisky is limited, there were 7,200 bottles produced and I was fortunate enough to be able to get my hands on one.

This Tomatin Whisky was distilled in 2009, and then it was transported to Caribbean rum casks in 2018, afterwards, it was given a one year finish to deliver it at aged 10 years.

In all fairness, this distillery is amazing, the history that has been captured just to me shows how much this business is booming and I can imagine it will continue to do so in the future!

I know what I am going to put now, I have said many times before, but I cannot help and reiterate of how much I want to travel to Scotland and visit all of these tremendous distilleries.

That’s one of my life goals and I will achieve it!

Review

Just talking about this whisky, is bringing back happy memories when me and Isobel, along with her family and friends, we took a trip out to the Sealife Centre in Birmingham, which was fabulous.

After visiting the Sealife centre, we travelled to The Hard To Find Whisky Shop, which was on the outskirts of Birmingham, inside it was absolutely surreal, it was packed full of some the finest malts you could literally lay your hands on.

Of course, when visiting any whisky shop, it is only right to have a cheeky sample inside, because this was so long ago when we visited, I truly couldn’t remember what I tried, all I can say is though, it was astonishing.

Anyway, after scouting through the shelves, I was trying to find something to buy and it was when I came across the Tomatin 2009 Aged 10 Years, I was like I’ve got to buy this and so I did.

You may well remember in a previous whisky post on The Cooper’s Choice, well I also bought this whisky from the same shop as well.

Now, moving onto the tasting:

I have tried this whisky a couple of times now, but it was a couple of days ago that made me think I needed to do a blog post on this wonderful whisky!

Tomatin 2009 Caribbean Rum Aged 10 Single Malt Whisky

Can you tell that I’ve been enjoying it?

The first smell that you will come across is the bursting aromas of salted caramel and mocha, I almost felt like I was about to drink a latte, on the other hand as soon as you take the first sip, the caramel aromas have vanished!

There were succulent flavours of tropical fruits, hints of citrus, pineapple and mango!

This finished the whisky off with a sweet lingering finish, which in my mind was everlasting and perfect.

Cheers To That!! 

This whisky was totally indulging and highly sweet, it was just weird how it started off being a winter malt, to then turning into a summer drink, apparently, that happens a lot in the whisky world, I am not complaining though, I was very happy with this!

Ending

WOW!

What a distillery and specifically what a cracking whisky, I am going to be deeply sad when this bottle goes, all I can say now though is that this glass was full of flavour!

You never know in the future I might be lucky to have another bottle, but for now, I am extremely happy with my whisky collection!

As you can see I couldn’t wait to tell you about this whisky, and the only thing that is left for me to say is how much I recommend it.

If you want a whisky bursting with goodness, then, when it’s safe get yourself down to The whisky shop in Birmingham and pick yourself up a bottle of Tomatin 2009 Caribbean Rum Aged 10.

Then, you can let me know your own personal thoughts!

Thanks for reading, and remember to stay safe!

Cheers

The Cask Connoisseur

Luke Slater