Whisky Discovery #295

Tobermory 17 Year Old Single Cask Master of Malt (57% abv D.26/04/1995)

Island Single Cask Single Malt Whisky

£59.95 70cl (only available from Master of Malt)

The 17 Year Old from the Tobermory Distillery

Number three of the Master of Malts Single Cask Collection, and as I lined these up in age order led me to this Tobermory 17 Year Old. I only tried my first Tobermory (the 10 Year Old) at the recent Birmingham Whisky Show so have had very little exposure to this distillery, based on the Isle of Mull. This spirit was distilled on 26th April 1995 and laid down to mature in a refill hogshead cask and yielded just 274 bottles.

This is a peppery style with deeper notes of mulling spices and roasted malt with a gloriously long finish.

Tasting Note by The Chaps at Master of Malt

Nose: Pepper and cranberry open the nose followed by milk chocolate and the fresh aroma of a conifer forest.

Palate: Peppery and malty with a coastal character and an oily mouth-feel. Slowly but surely notes of mulled wine fill the mouth and announce the finish.

Finish: Big spicy notes of course ground pepper, cumin and nutmeg with sweet popping candy on the tail.

Overall: A rich single malt from the Isle of Mull with warm spicy notes and a great mouth-coating quality.

So What Did We Think?

This Tobermory has been my favourite of the three tasted so far, it a rich, meaty dram with bags of flavour. From my brief notes from Birmingham and recollection it shares similarities to the  standard 10 Year Old, but everything has been increased, like it has been put through and amplifier and played at full blast.

Again the colour of this 17 year old is very pale, like a white wine being naturally coloured, only taking the colour from maturing in the refill hogshead during the seventeen year maturation.

The nose is rich and meaty, a definite peppery note, almost chilli like, yet with a balsamic sweetness with soy sauce and pine cones, conifer forest as the Master of Malt notes say. I wasn't able to find the chocolate on this dram however, but I love the nose of this one. The empty glass the following morning is also appealing; malty with some chocolate notes which I found at last.

This has a big powerful entry, it's peppery, malty, with a rich sweetness again reminding me of a balsamic/soy sauce dressing and there's a light brine maritime edge to it too. The spicy peppery notes remained to the end with some sweet toffee notes at the end.

Want one? You'd better be quick as there were only 274 bottles of this. For more information and to buy see Master of Malt 17 Year Old Tobermory