Tobermory 15 Year (SMWS 42.54 "Adventures by the Sea")

 

Purchased during the Scotch Malt Whisky Society's Highlands Festival 2021, this is a 15 Year Tobermory, a distillery I have before today never experienced in its unpeated form! Hailing from the Isle of Mull, Tobermory is perhaps better known by their peated imprint Ledaig, which I have quite enjoyed in the past, and that has a distinctive dry peat flavor I liked. Tobermory, the core distillery, is a real mystery to me. 

This bottle was aged 15 years in refill bourbon barrels, and bottled at 61.6%. It's part of the SMWS's "oily and coastal" flavor profile, and given the nickname Adventures by the Sea. Here are the official tasting notes: 

We felt the need to sharpen an axe with a whetstone and inevitably an accident happened and as we opened the first aid box, all we saw were salted toffees, ginger cake and Turkish delight. Oh well, we managed as on the palate, we detected a lovely, intriguing interplay between sweet and salty, like popcorn and almonds but then also a ginger, sweet nutmeg spiciness in the finish. Fun activities came to mind after a splash of water, shelling on the beach, a picnic in a pine forest and a trip to the prawn shack as we finished with an olive oil martini.       

Let's see how Tobermory tastes!

Nose: Interesting! Some ripe fruit and also a dry, salty, leathery maritime aspect. Salted caramel on gingerbread. Actually, quite a lot of ginger. Some cinnamon, nutmeg. So far, follows the official notes relatively closely - although I'm not sure what they mean by "sharpening an axe with a whetstone" - suggesting, I suppose a minerality? With water it gets both sweeter and saltier on the nose, but nothing is particularly enhanced. 

Mouthfeel: Thin and oily. 

Palate: Quite a robust sweet-and-salty development across the palate - it starts small with vanilla and rock salt, and then builds and builds with some tropical fruit and TONS of baking spices (cloves, avalanche of ginger, allspice, pepper, more) into a real crescendo on the tongue...

Finish: ...then fades away rapidly. The finish is surprisingly short! Oak and lingering ginger and other light spices are left behind, and remain there faintly before disappearing. After some time, you realize that a touch of smoke has been deposited in odd corners of your mouth - a touch I always like to discover. This might - might? - be the pine forest bit from the official notes. After letting it sit a while, the empty glass absolutely reeked of tropical fruit skins. 

Verdict: This Tobermory is all about the palate. The nose is pleasant, filled with sweet and salty spice, but a tiny bit closed off - and the finish evaporates so quickly - but the flavor on the tongue is huge. I like this - it's extremely spicy, in the best way.