Tomatin 11 Year Old 1994 Creative Whisky Company

Look now, an older release in the Exclusive Malts series by the Creative Whisky Company, when packaging was not yet important… This very young Tomatin has spent more time in the bottle than it did on the cask. It was finished on a ‘fresh American oak cask’.

On the nose I immediately get scents that I associate with bourbon. Lots of vanilla, corn on the barbecue, coconut and grain cookies. Hint of wood glue. Underneath this is a nice bit of citrus fruit and some green tea, unripe banana and white chocolate. Nice.

Nicely oily. Quite piquant (white pepper), but mostly honeysweet. The white chocolate returns first, followed by coconut and a truckload of vanilla. Sweet corn. Then some grapefruit, lemon and some barley sugars. Finally some bittersweet oak. Surprisingly soft for its ABV.

The finish is very long, warm on sweet oak that slowly but surely turns the mouth dry.

I have no certainly, but this ‘fresh American oak cask’ might very well have been ‘virgin oak’, for the spiciness is grand and the bourbon characteristics dominate.

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