Ah, there are so many good whiskies from the Islands, the light and often single casked Arran, the beast Talisker, the connoisseur favorite Highland Park and even the Jura with the new range of cask strengths and different peat leveled whisky... And then there's Tobermory, on the Isle of Mull, a whisky that doesn't seem to fit into any category. Not much talked about, and sort of a light-weighter. But I haven't tried to many of ´em so lets see what it can do here.
Tobermory NAS 40% OB Blend
A blend consisting of unpeated Tobermory and grain, I think this whisky is a couple of decades old. Smells light and fresh, wet grass, fresh mint and toothpaste. Extremely light and fresh. The taste is light, sort of buttery, dark chocolate and oily. That is all fine but lasts only for a short second before it turns spirity and bitter. Water might help? Not much but it streches the initial flavors a second or two. And the water takes down the spirity notes a bit. But all in all it is a light starter malt, and lacks the complexity of the single malts. I hope so.
Well balanced blend when diluted: 4
Tobermory 14yo 1995-2009 46% Flickenschield
I don't know much about the bottler Flickenschield, but I have seen some of their bottles for sale at online auctions. A dark version this one, could come from a sherry cask? But I guess they would have mentioned that on the bottle then, in these days of massive legend information. It smells Extremely light, much lighter than the blend, cinnamon tea and incense from a lighter cigarette, Prince Mint? Very withdrawn, but there are some notes of oloroso sherry in there. Needs tome to open up. The taste is perfectly sweet and balanced sherried whisky, oloroso style. Reminds me of the old Highland Park 12 back when there were bigger sherry amounts in the batches. Though the nose promises nothing, the palate delivers on a high note. The taste is of cinnamon, honey, coriander, lemon peel, toasted rye and just a small phenolic zing in the finish.
Simply the best Tobermory I've had up until now, by far: 8
Tobermory 10yo 46.3% OB
The new standard expression of Tobermory, bottled at 46.3%. I remember being sort of disappointed with the rather bland 40%-bottling a while back, so hopefully the risen abv. will bring a new dimension to this one. Another light nose, but not as odorless ad the Flickenschield bottling. Smells instantly herbal and grassy, with some vanilla and honey too. Where does this sweet honey-flavor come from? Interesting, almost like a Talisker without the peat, and I do like a Talisker. The taste is, well, on the contrary to the nose, it does have a bit, I'd think there were peat in this one if I didn't know any better. Sweet, grassy, herbal and oily at first, then develops into a more sort of coffee and spirity thing. caramel, coffee and gasoline?
Maybe water will help. Yes it does, not in the initial palate, but as with the blend it does restrain the spirity notes.
A good whisky with a kick to it, and some off-notes unfortunately: 4.5
Ledaig 18yo 1974-1992 43% OB
I don't think I have come across such an old Ledaig or Tobermory yet, and according to word of mouth, the Ledaig and Tobermory bottlings of past days could be pretty miserable. But 18 years old should give time for improvement? By the way, this is one of two 18yo Ledaigs I'm trying today. Pale color. Smells heavy and peaty, greasy to be precise. This reminds me sort of smoking a cigar over frying bacon. I'll give it that it's definitively not something you find in many other single malts. Oh yeah, this whisky talks. The taste is again fat, oily, thick, greasy if you know what I mean. And it's peaty, after the bold sensation of deep fried fat it's got another thing coming, a straight and kind of light peatiness. What I'm concerned, this one plays ball with the big peaty guys (Ardbeg, Lagavulin, Talisker) any day of week.
Not refined in any way, just bloody good whisky that handles the peat beautifully: 7.5
Ledaig 18yo 55.2% James MacArthur's
The only cask strength of this session, last sip showed that Ledaig really can handle a low strength, but what will happen when upped to cask strength. Same age, 18 years, maybe ledaig is a whisky that's just being bottled at a too young age? The good thing about James MacArthur's is that they often buy very good casks, but they keep to cheaper casks, which makes for an affordable IB. I do like it a lot as I can buy just about any bottling from JM and expect a good ordinary refill CS bourbon-casked whisky. It smells peaty and spirity alingside some lemon peel, vanilla and egg creme. Give it time and the peat really bursts out. The taste is extremely peaty and it burns, acidic, peat and peppery. It's much more extreme than the 1974. It's gonna need some water. Water makes it very sweet, apricot marmalade and honey melon. The peat disappears when diluted.
Try it undiluted and you'll be overwhelmed, dilute and be bored: 5.5
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