TOMATIN - 1973 - 46%
Tomatin Distillery is one of Scotland's largest distilleries, located in the Highlands near Inverness. Tomatin translates to “Hill of the Juniper Bush”: as juniper wood does not emit smoke when burning, it has long been used by illicit distillers who had to keep their practice a secret, especially during Prohibition. Tomatin's remote location over 300 meters above sea level on the Monadhliath Mountains is surely due to the fact that the site had previously housed a pot still where cattle ranchers stopped to fill their flasks. When the official distillery was founded in 1897, at the height of the whisky boom, the location, although isolated, was convenient as it was next to a newly opened railway line, which connected the distillery to the market (and supply center) of Inverness, and to an upland creek supplying fresh mountain water. Nevertheless, like many whisky distilleries, the company suffered from the crisis of 1900 and went bankrupt in 1906 before reopening in 1909 under new ownership. The collapse in demand for whisky during the economic crisis of the 1980s led to the liquidation of the distillery, and many stills were dismantled. Two years later it was bought by former client Takaro Shuzo Ltd and distribution company Okura, both Japanese. Since that time Tomatin has been developed much more as a brand with an emphasis on quality over quantity, and a wider range of Single Malts.
This 1973 Tomatin is a Single Cask (#25604) aged for 32 years before being bottled in September 2005.
Unpeated