Whisky : Tomatin 12 Year SMWS 11.37 “Cake or death!”

Country/Region : Scotland/Highlands

ABV : 58.3%

Cask : First Fill Red Wine Barrique

Age : 12 Years (Distilled Feb. 2, 2006)

Nose : Big bold fruits: plums and sour cherries.  Beyond lies rum cake, canned vanilla cake frosting, and a big stick of juicy fruit gum.  A subtle mineral or metallic note like wrought iron appears at times.

Palate : Medium bodied and quite rich, notes of rum raisin cate, dates, prunes, and brown sugar give this a dense sweetness.  The sugars become a bit artificial near the end, the fruits more like a dry red wine, and a slightly bitter menthol develops.

Finish : Lingering sweet red wine and frosting.

Score : 5

Mental Image : Rainbow Unicorn Party

Something Better : Balcones Brujería (similar rum raisin, more complexity)

Something Similar : Nikka Yoichi 10Y (similar spice & iron, saltier, more wood)

Notes :  Lovely bold fruits on the nose, a bit too much dessert on the palate.  The flavors were deep and rich and whether you loved this or hated this seemed to depend quite a bit on how partial you were toward dessert drams.  At a tasting a few months ago this garnered about an equal split from tasters who thought it was top of the night and those who nominated it for the drain.

While it does build to an almost cloying sweetness, the bitter menthol note that develops on the backend actually helps keeps things in check.  It pulls the sweetness back just enough— offering a contrasting flavor note— that I did not find this overbearing.  Overall, while this is far from something that I would grab on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, it was still fun to sip on.