Bottle of the Week
Bottle of the Week: Tomatin Decades II
Nov
Tomatin Decades II
This whisky is the definition of a special release. Tomatin Decades II was designed as a tribute to all the people who have worked at Tomatin over the decades. The master blender took whisky from 21 casks, all produced at Tomatin across 50 years to create this truly original single malt.
The 1970s were represented by a refill bourbon hogshead; the 1980s delivered a first fill oloroso sherry cask; the 1990s contributed a first fill bourbon cask; the 2000s chipped in with a re-charred Verdejo wine barrels while the 2010s finished out the quintet with a second fill French oak barrel.
Blending two casks is a complicated task – marrying five and managing to predict the outcome and produce a whisky as dramatic as this is a fantastic endeavour. It’s a real tribute to the science of cask selection. The outcome is 3,600 bottles of 46% single malt with complex layers of flavour and texture. Released in 2019, Decades II is a sequel to the first Decades bottle, also designed as a tribute to the former distillery manager Douglas Campbell in 2011.
Tomatin Distillery is a Highland producer located in the village of Tomatin, close to Inverness, and now owned by the Japanese Takara Shuzo Corporation.
