Tomintoul 10 Year

I acquired the tasting set containing 10, 16, and 25-year-old expressions. Smell: The 10-year-old is very fresh, indicating its youth. It evokes a stream flowing through blooming plants, with a subtle hint of tobacco. Very delicate. The 16-year-old is reminiscent of the 10, but richer, with vanilla as the dominant flavor. This is also very delicate. The 25-year-old shows a consistently delicate evolution: vanilla, along with wildflowers and fresh fruit, almonds. The lower alcohol content further enhances its character, which Tomintoul itself describes as gentle! Taste: Starting with the 10-year-old, it's extremely delicate, yet seems older than its stated age. It resembles eating vanilla ice cream with some hazelnuts and a few pieces of fresh fruit. A pleasant oily mouthfeel. A good pour. The 16-year-old is equally delicate, recalling the 10 but with a touch of licorice and a more pronounced oiliness. An excellent pour! The 25-year-old is undoubtedly richer, but sacrifices some of the aroma's gentleness, presenting wood and vanilla, walnuts, and tobacco. Finish: The 10-year-old is short and confirms its excellent balance, leaving a pleasant floral and vanilla note. The finish of the 16-year-old is slightly more bitter than the 10, and short. The finish of the 25-year-old is much longer, but also more bitter than the other two. Conclusions: I prefer the 16-year-old for the enjoyment it provided, closely followed by the 10, which it strongly resembles, and then the 25: among the 25-year-olds I've sampled, there are significantly better options! Scores: 16-year-old 4.25 - 10-year-old 4.00 - 25-year-old 3.75 ________________________________________________________ I obtained the tasting set with 10-16-25yo, this is how it went. Nose: the 10 is very fresh, you can tell it's young. It gives the impression of a stream flowing among flowering plants, with a light hint of tobacco. Very delicate. The 16 remembers it, but more full-bodied, vanilla is the master. This is also very delicate. With the 25 there is an always very delicate evolution: vanilla, but also wild flowers and fresh fruit, almonds. The low alcohol content makes it even more, as Tomintoul itself defines itself, gentle! Palate: we start from the 10, very delicate, but it seems to have a few more years than it declares. It feels like eating vanilla ice cream with some hazelnuts and a few pieces of fresh fruit. Pleasant oily consistency. Good dram. The 16 is equally delicate, and remembers the 10 but with a hint of licorice and greater oiliness. Excellent dram. The 25 is undoubtedly more full-bodied, but loses some of the gentleness of the nose and offers wood and vanilla, nuts and tobacco. Finish: the 10 is short and confirms the excellent balance, leaving a pleasant hint of flowers and vanilla. The finish of the 16 is slightly more bitter than the 10, short. The finish of the 25 is much longer, but also more bitter than the other 2. Conclusions: for me the 16yo wins, for the pleasure it gave me, followed almost on par by the 10, which remembers it a lot, and then the 25: among the 25yo I tried there are much better ones!

Nose: Lemongrass, chamomile tea, some honey, and a hint of a fresh, briny breeze. As it sits and opens in the glass, clean, light aromas are complemented by a warmer caramelized barley scent and a touch of baked banana. It's not a highly complex nose, but it is crisp and invigorating. [The dry-glass aroma is the scent of meadow flowers in spring]. Palate: Sweet and mild cereal with floral honey notes – particularly leatherwood honey – and a very subtle hint of vanilla. Golden malt and sweet red apple emerge during development, along with some sweet hay barnyard aromas. The texture is light but not watery. Avoid adding water, as it's a delicate malt and cannot handle dilution. Finish: Medium/short. Crisp and nutty with a semi-sweet grassy aftertaste and a distant hint of licorice. The nose is modest and requires a good 10-15 minutes to awaken, remaining a subtle and elegant pleasure even then. Don't expect this whisky to overwhelm you with intense aromas; that's not its intention. This is a gentle, relaxed whisky for sipping neat with companions on a warm day. The palate is soothing and mainly cereal/grassy, but not herbal. Instead, the top notes are floral and sweet, like fine honey crafted by bees from meadow flowers or eucalyptus blossoms. Its range is limited, but again, this is intentional – just don't anticipate intensity. Regarding the finish, I differ from the official tasting note that it's merely drying. It's demi-sec and strongly evokes a young, lightly oaked white wine. The soothing and gentle nature of this whisky cannot be overstated. It blends sweet herbal, honeyed, and floral elements effectively. I enjoyed it more than expected and consider it good value. I would definitely include it in a list of recommended first single malts for beginners. Tasted from a 30ml sample. "Average": 78/100 (2.75 stars)

The tagline is Tomintoul – the gentle dram... I acquired a 35cl sampler pack with an overseas order a couple months back, intending to try these again after being quite unimpressed with their Peaty Tang bottling. This sampler includes pours of the 10, 16, and 25 year old, unpeated malts for about $32 plus shipping. Not a bad price for a quarter-century sample, I suppose. Let's start with the 10 year to establish a baseline first, shall we? Upon pouring into the Glencairn, I notice many warning signs: golden yellow that appears colored, large droplets of water, and thin legs after swirling, plus large water spots where the legs drained after things settled. Yikes, should I even question the stated 40% ABV? There's a lot of water in this. The nose was absent during the pour, and even after a solid five minutes of swirling, not much emanates from the glass. What eventually appears are weak bread notes, candied corn, and a bit of freshly cut oak. The key descriptor here, however, is "weak." The palate starts nicely with some sweet vanilla and oak, but then that cream corn note emerges, leaving a bland, corn chip flavor on the tongue. It's a gentle dram, and for a minute, I truly thought I was drinking room-temperature water. Wow, Tomintoul – the TOO gentle dram... The finish turned out dry with a surprisingly high amount of bitterness and oak. Thankfully, it was short. Overall, this is a failure. I'm hoping the 16 and 25 year old samples will offer more depth and character. If it's just a couple of well-aged water and corn, it will be $32 wasted. This is a 2-star dram purely because it contains alcohol. I see no reason to purchase a full bottle, unless you enjoy soft, corn-flavored water. Cheers, everyone.

Rating: October 23 Nose: Quite subtle. Hard to discern. I detect some sweet grain and a bit of cardboard. Little else is present. Palate: It's very light and smooth, showing clear youth, an unusual bitter undertone, and a strong grain character that, combined with some sweet mineral stream water, develops the sweetness. This is remarkably lacking in complexity and frankly, not very appealing. I'd place it below Arran 10 and BenRiach 10. There's a faint hint of some fruit and some spices eventually appear, though they bring some harshness. I briefly detect a pleasant hint of orange. After reading the distiller's notes, perhaps I get a slight touch of brine and lemon, along with a significant floral element accompanied by a little herbal flavor that could be potpourri. The sweet, dried apples and scorched grass though? Unfortunately, I can't detect them. There's some grass mixed with the grain, but the sweetness causes the grain flavor to dominate. Finish: Some of that slightly oily bitterness remains, along with a lot of grain that becomes less sweet as it progresses, really not very good. This tastes somewhere between a 10-year-old scotch and a grainy vodka. As a vodka, it's actually somewhat interesting. As a scotch, it's terribly bland and unappealing. It's not actively bad, but I would prefer not to drink it. Between this and Sir Edward's 12, it's a difficult choice. It's also a tough call compared to Aberlour 12. If I had to decide right now, I would likely rank this below Sir Edward's and above Aberlour - a genuinely surprising outcome. I believe my initial thought to give this a 9 was mistaken; it's more of a 10. The light grain is very youthful, but it's at least a clean, smooth flavor without any flaws other than its youth and a bit too much decent-quality alcohol. It even has a touch of complexity.

Have you ever experienced that feeling when you return to your corporate job after a break and find a triple-digit number of emails in your inbox? While an abrupt return to reality can cause heart palpitations, as strange as it sounds, this bottling reminds me to be gentle with myself (it is marketed as "the gentle dram," after all). Who would have thought that whiskey could inspire such sound wisdom? The nose offers orange blossoms, oak, and steeped chamomile tea with a drizzle of honey. Delicate, aged dry wood shavings and toffee join in to add more rustic charm. My sips of this bottling are smooth, and I taste a soft, honeyed apple sweetness that complements the nose. Sadly, it's short-lived. A brief wave of dried barley and lemon zest gives way to a slightly drying, moderate finish. What remains is primarily a tannic flavor. While I could smell that nose all day, the flavor journey is too brief for me. In my mind, I exclaimed, "Wait, I'm just getting started!" as I flailed my metaphorical arms. Some days do call for a mild pour, but I prefer expressions from this distillery with a few more years on them. 6.5/10

As a workhorse of the blend industry, this distillery is one of the lesser-known Speyside producers. The nose of this 10-year-old expression is simple, muted, and primarily fruity. Grapes, banana, and hints of refined sugar mingle with distant floral notes. Tasting thin, fragile, and almost watery, this dram acts like a blended Scotch. Mildly bitter spices, fudge, and grainy citrus give way to a modest, nutty finish dominated by the refill cask, which is still the best part of the experience. I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Was this whiskey intended to be sold as a single malt? RATING: 2.7/5.0 stars ≙ 76 pts → SUBPAR [+]