Happy 2019 to you all! I’ve been quite dormant lately here on the blog but I can hope that 2019 will be far more productive here on the blog than 2018 was.

Let’s start 2019 with a bang with a review of a mature whisky – the 2018 batch of Tomatin 30 Year Old. I love old and matured Tomatin whiskies as they usually have lots of tropical fruitiness and I’m sucker for those notes.

Tomatin 30 isn’t a totally new expression – we had some previous incarnations of Tomatin 30 Year Old until the early 201x but it went out of commission when matured stock at the distillery dwindled and so it was replaced by the 1988 vintage batches. And now it’s back to market, retiring the 1988 vintage expression (which basically is a 30 year old now).

Tomatin 30 was matured in ex-Bourbon and traditional oak casks, bottled at 46% and has natural color and isn’t chill filtered.

Tomatin 30 Year Old (2108 Edition) (46%, £299/€252,84)

Nose: Soft stone fruits, creme, honey, gentle spices with lots of white pepper. After a minute or two a subtle tropical fruit sweetness, becoming very fresh and somewhat chocolaty.

Palate: Tropical fruits buffet (or salad) goodness in vanilla sauce, lots of sweet green fruits, papaya, kiwi and a bit of cantaloupe melon, ending on a menthol-like freshness. Subtle bitterness of oak wood spiciness and white pepper, cream. Very tasty!

Finish: Medium long, lingering green tropical fruitiness and sweetness with subtle oak bitterness and white pepper.

Thoughts: I did expect the Tomatin 30 Year Old to carry some tropical fruits notes (after all it’s an old Tomatin), but frankly I was surprised from the profile it delivers as it’s so ‘green tropical’, without much pineapple juiciness. But still it’s very good and tasty whisky with a consistent velvety delivery of tropical goodness with balancing gentle spices.