Tomintoul 14 Year Old

I finished my last light whisky (Balblair 2002) and was going through the cabinet in search of something that would satisfy my need for a nice light summery dram. I was quite happy when I remembered I had this Tomintoul still unopened and waiting.

Well, as a first comment, after opening this I realized I wouldn't call this whisky primarily light. Delicate and complex definitely, but rather lush than light. But I wasn't disappointed, quite the contrary.

The nose starts with a combination of a summery fruit basket and something reminiscent of beeswax shoe polish (not in a negative way). After a teaspoon of water added, the different fruits start to be more distinguishable. Some white fruits, but mostly yellow: lemon, banana and overripe pineapple. Also some aniseed.

The palate continues where the nose leaves. Intense summer fruits (pineapple, pears), sweet & sour honey and lemon oil, continuing into 'dry whitewine-like' oaky dryness with some delicate herbal notes I can't quite pinpoint.

The finnish is semi-dry with some mild oak, barley, honey and herbs.

Even after 14 years of maturation, this whisky is still in my opinion more spirit dominated than cask dominated. Having said that though, they are extremely well in balance. I can't really think of anything negative to say about this whisky. It's simply a very well made properly presented (46%, unchillfiltered, natural color) whisky. Bravo!

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