Tomintoul Distillery, Scotland     founded: 1965 | active
For more detailed mapping of the distilleries in the area from our whisky map page, use this link.

What a wonderful day for an adventure outdoors! An earthy nose of moss, amber, nettles and a peatiness reminiscent of damp ashes and burning currach (a wooden Irish boat). For our coastal woodland picnic we have options of laverbread, salt baked cod and ham hock seasoned with rosemary – the tang ensured by a splash of vinegar. In juxtaposition to this to cleanse the palate there are definite fresh, clean notes of lemon, melon and rose. Oh hang on a minute..... who took off their musty old shoes around the food???

The outdoor picnic continues – not sure if there is enough food to go round but glad everyone remembered to bring their herbs and seasoning: plenty of black pepper, rosemary, thyme and fresh peppermint. Cucumber relish and ginger beer to accompany the Cedar marinated in lemon (that’s what happens when you don’t bring enough food....), some even resorted to sand! Well done for remembering the rose sorbet and brandy balls though!

Unequivocally Long - in fact as long as Adam Burns' .............. Adam's Apple! An ongoing, lingering spicy taste of pepper and cloves, a tanginess of gooseberries and a saline edge of seaweed and lobster pots.

~£27 (70cl)

Master of Malt: Tomintoul With A Peaty Tang   |   http://www.masterofmalt.com/whiskies/tomintou

We've always scored out of 10 in our group (see number in red box, below), with scores regularly given across that spectrum. The value out of 100 below is adjusted to the scale most commonly used for whisky reviews, to allow for better comparison.

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