Origin: Isle of Mull (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 46.3%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon
Chillfiltered: No
Added coloring: No
Owner: Distell Group Ltd.
Average price: € 37.00
Official website: tobermorydistillery.com
Vote: 81/100
Of Tobermory, the distillery that produces its own peated whisky under the Ledaig label, I have already had occasion to talk about their 18-year-old, to which I therefore refer you for their story.
Tobermory claims to be a ‘craft distillery’, and given its location on the remote island of Mull and its small production numbers, this is easy to believe.
As they don’t have warehouses on site, they rely on those owned by Burn Stewart (a subsidiary of the Distell Group), which recently started building a new storage facility near Glasgow, so production could increase over time. Who knows!
Tasting notes
Light gold in the glass.
The bacon peat spreads clearly even from a distance, and as the nose gets closer the aromas are enriched with burnt tyres, dirt, a tonic medicinal note embraced by the ocean (like a disinfectant diluted in seawater, excellent for suffumigation). In the background, cloves, pear, cereals. In some ways it’s a rough nose, not very balanced, where the peat tends to prevail, leaving little room for evolution, but for those who like the genre it is inviting in its own way.
In the mouth the alcohol perhaps stings more than it should, but if you want it to, it matches the brusque character of the whisky. Obviously peat, with a clear herbaceous and earthy profile while maintaining a meaty soul, like bacon wrapped in tufts of grass and breaded with dirt, very ‘dirty’ and agricultural. You add threads of smoke (the breaded bacon was roasted), burnt biscuits, vanilla cream, more pear and cloves, medicinal notes finished in the background. A mix of youth and labourer’s soul, if it could speak the first word would surely be a very colourful expletive.
Quite long finish of ash, grass, bacon and cereal.
Rough, untidy, dirty, grumpy. Easy to hate or fall in love with. I try to maintain a professional detachment, and having tried more mature and complex versions I cannot, in all honesty, promote it with full marks.
But its arrogant adolescence has its reason, and its price is more than affordable.
Other perspectives:
The Scotch Noob