Tobermory 1994-2020 25yo by Kintra

23 October 2020

We came across this bottle by Kintra a couple of months ago. It ticked all of our boxes: Tobermory, sherry matured, 25 years old, cask strength (50.9%) and an empty wallet.

Well, that last box wasn’t all too bad actually. It set us back around € 140,-, which is a reasonable price for something like this.

When the bottle arrived, I was quite shocked how pale the whisky looked. It’s from a refill sherry butt, but we’ve expected more of a tan to be honest. Not that it always means something, I owned a handfilled PX Noé matured Bunnahabhain, which looked just as bright, but tasted like a true sherrybomb.

It took us a few tries to let it live up to its potential. The infamous ‘neck pours’ were applicable to this one. But it (and maybe our palate too) transformed after a few drams and I couldn’t stop writing down notes:

Tasting notes

Nose

Toasty and nutty, with raspberry jam, leather, tobacco, warm cake, apricot jelly, danish pastries, some hints of green apples and mango, a faint hint of currants and last but not least: some savoury and herbal qualities arose.

Palate

Oily and balanced, quite crisp too. And old oak table, ginger, lime, raisin bread, minced meat, cucumber and cream. No sticky sherry notes, but very pleasant nonetheless.

Finish

Here comes the first real (although subtle) hint of sweet raisins, with apple peels, a subtropical swimming pool, citrus and old wood. Then there’s salty ham and tropical fruits like mango and ripe pineapples, a whiff of drying raisins, dates, cinnamon and those savoury and herbal notes again. Almost a bit like cannabis.

There’s so much fun in this bottle. It’s odd, unique and very tasty if you give it some patience. It has some Ben Nevis-like qualities, which is always something we applaud. Have we expected this? No, we expected a sherry bomb. Were we disappointed by that? Absolutely not, we were surprised in very good way!