Tomintoul 10 Year

I bought the tasting kit with 10-16-25yo, here's how it went. Nose: 10 is very fresh, you feel it is young. It gives the idea of ​​a stream flowing among flowering plants, with a slight hint of tobacco. Very delicate. The 16th remembers the 10yo, but more full-bodied, vanilla is the main taste. This is also very delicate. With the 25 there is an always very delicate evolution: vanilla, but also wild flowers and fresh fruit, almonds. The low alcohol content makes it even more, as Tomintoul herself defines herself, gentle! Palate: we start from 10, very delicate, but it seems to be a few years older than what it declares. It feels like eating a vanilla ice cream with some hazelnuts and a few pieces of fresh fruit. Pleasant oily texture. Good dram. The 16 is just as delicate, and recalls the 10 but with a hint of licorice and greater oiliness. Very good dram! The 25 is undoubtedly more full-bodied, but it loses some of the gentleness of smell and offers wood and vanilla, nuts and tobacco. Final: 10 is short and confirms the excellent balance, leaving a pleasant hint of flowers and vanilla. The finish of the 16 is slightly more bitter than the 10, short. The ending of 25 is longer, but also more bitter than the other 2. Conclusions: for me the 16yo wins, for the pleasure it gave me, followed almost on a par by the 10, which remembers him a lot, and then the 25: among the 25yo I tried there are much better! Rates: 16yo 4.25 - 10yo 4.00 - 25yo 3.75 ________________________________________________________ Ho acquistato il kit di degustazione con 10-16-25yo, ecco come è andata. Naso: il 10 è molto fresco, si sente che è giovane. Da l’idea di un ruscello che scorre in mezzo a piante da fiore, con leggero sentore di tabacco. Molto delicato. Il 16 lo ricorda, ma più corposo, la vaniglia la fa da padrona. Anche questo molto delicato. Con il 25 si ha una evoluzione sempre delicatissima: vaniglia, ma anche fiori di campo e frutta fresca, mandorle. Il basso grado alcolico lo rende ancora di più, come la stessa Tomintoul si definisce, gentile! Palato: partiamo dal 10, delicatissimo, ma sembra avere qualche anno di più di quelli che dichiara. Sembra di mangiare un gelato alla vaniglia con qualche nocciola e qualche pezzettino di frutta fresca. Consistenza oleosa piacevole. Buon dram. Il 16 è altrettanto delicato, e ricorda il 10 ma con una punta di liquirizia ed una maggiore oleosità. Ottimo dram. Il 25 è indubbiamente più corposo, ma perde un po’ della gentilezza dell’olfatto e propone legno e vaniglia, noci e tabacco. Finale: il 10 è breve e conferma l’ottimo equilibrio lasciando un piacevole sentore di fiori e vaniglia. Il finale del 16 è leggermente più amarognolo del 10, breve. Il finale del 25 è molto più lungo, ma anche più amarognolo degli altri 2. Conclusioni: per me vince il 16yo, per la piacevolezza che mi ha regalato, seguito quasi alla pari dal 10, che lo ricorda molto, e poi il 25: tra i 25yo che ho provato ce ne sono di nettamente migliori! I voti: 16yo 4,25 - 10yo 4,00 - 25yo 3,75

Nose: Lemongrass, chamomile tea, some honey and touch of fresh briny breeze. As it rests and opens in the glass the clean, light aromas are joined by a warmer caramelised barley presence and a hint of baked banana. It's not a particularly complex nose, but it is crisp and refreshing. [The dry-glass aroma is the scent of meadow-flowers in spring]. Palate: Sweet and gentle cereal with flowery honey notes - leatherwood honey in particular - and a very slight hint of vanilla. Golden malt and sweet red apple in the development, plus some sweet-hay barnyard aromas. The texture is light but not watery. Don't add any water - it is a fragile malt and can't take dilution. Finish: Medium/short. Crisp and nutty with a semi-sweet grassy aftertaste and a distant echo of licorice. The nose is demure and takes a good 10-15 minutes to wake up, and even when it does it remains a subtle and elegant pleasure. Don't come to this whisky expecting to be bombarded with forceful aromas, that's not at all what it is about. This is a gentle, laid-back whisky to enjoy neat with friends on a warm day. The palate is soothing and primarily cereal/grassy in nature, but it's not herbal. The top-notes are instead floral and sweet, like a fine honey the bees have crafted from meadow flowers or eucalyptus blossoms. It has a limited range but again that is intentional - just don't expect this to have intensity. As for the finish, I disagree with the official tasting note that the finish is simply drying. It's demi-sec and strongly reminiscent of a young and slightly oaked white wine. The soothing and gentle quality of this whisky can't be overstated. It's a combination of sweet herbal, honeyed and floral elements that works very well. I enjoyed it more than I had anticipated and it is good value for money. I'd certainly add it to the list of recommended first single malts for the novice. Hmm, maybe I should make just such a list here on Distiller. Tasted from a 30ml sample. "Average" : 78/100 (2.75 stars)

Ah, Tomintoul- the gentle dram... That’s their tagline. I purchased a 3 5cl sampler pack with a European order a couple months ago figuring I’d give these guys another try after being very unimpressed with their Peaty Tang bottling. This sampler has pours of the 10, 16 and 25 year old, unpeated malts for around $32 + shipping. Not bad for a quarter century sample, I guess. Let’s start with the 10 year and get a baseline first, shall we? Upon pouring it into the Glencairn I get lots of warning signs: golden yellow that looks like it was colored, big droplets of water and thin legs after giving it a spin, and even large water spots where the legs drained after things settle out. Yikes, should I even question the advertised 40% ABV? There’s a lot of water here. The nose was non-existent during the pour and even after a solid 5 minutes of swirling there isn’t much wafting out of the glass. What does appear, eventually, is weak bread notes, candied corn and a bit of fresh cut oak. The key descriptor here though is “weak”. The palate has a nice start with some sweet vanilla and oak, but then that cream corn note creeps in and just leaves a bland, corn chip flavor lingering on the tongue. It’s a gentle dram and for a minute I swore it actually tasted like I was drinking room temperature water. Yowza, Tomintoul- the TOO gentle dram... The finish ended up being dry with a surprisingly high amount of bitterness and oak. Thankfully it was short. Overall, this is a dud. I’m hoping the 16 and 25 year old samples will offer something more along the lines of depth and character. If it’s just a couple of well aged water and corn it will be $32 wasted. This thing is a 2 star dram just because it has alcohol in it. I see no reason to buy a full bottle for any reason, though. Unless you like soft, corn-flavored water. Cheers, my friends.

Rating: 10/23 N: Quite light. Difficult to make out. I get some sweet cereal and some cardboard. Little else is happening here though. P: It's very light and smooth with a clear youthfulness, an odd bitter backing, and a big cereal presence that combines with some mineral stream water sweetness to develop the sweet side. This is amazingly uncomplex and not very appealing frankly. I put it somewhere beneath Arran 10 and BenRiach 10. There is a light hint of some sort of fruit and some spices do eventually come out, though they bring some harshness. I briefly get a nice hint of orange. After reading the Distiller tasting, maybe I get a slight hint of brine and lemon, as well as a substantial floral bit that comes with a little herbal flavor that could be potpourri. The sweet wizened apples and tarring grass though? Sadly, I can't detect them. There is some grass in with the cereal, but the sweetness makes the cereal flavor dominate. F: Some of that slightly oily bitterness lingers along with a lot of cereal that loses sweetness as it goes along, really not that great. This tastes somewhere between a 10 year old scotch and a grainy vodka. As the vodka, it's actually kind of interesting. As the scotch, it's terribly bland an unappealing. It isn't actively bad, but I'd rather not drink it. Between this and Sir Edward's 12, it's a tough call. It's also a tough call with Aberlour 12. If I had to make the call right now, I'd probably put this below Sir Edward's and above Aberlour - a frankly shocking result. I think that makes this worthy of a 9 or maybe 10. I think my initial inclination to give this a 9 was misguided and it's more of a 10. The light grain is very youthful, but it's at least a clean, smooth flavor without any flaws aside from youth and a bit much decent-quality alcohol. It even has a dash of complexity.

Have you had that feeling when you return to your corporate job after time off and see a triple digit amount of emails in your inbox? While an abrupt return to reality can cause heart palpitations, as silly as it sounds, Tomintoul 10 reminds me to be gentle with myself (...marketed as "the gentle dram" afterall). Who would have thought that whisky would invoke such sound philosophy?  The nose shares orange blossoms, oak and steeped chamomile tea with a drizzle of honey. Delicate, aged dry wood shavings and toffee chime in to add more rustic charm.  My sips of Tomintoul 10 are smooth and I taste soft honeyed apple sweetness that compliments the nose. Sadly, it's fleeting. A brief wave of dried barley and lemon zest makes way to a slightly drying, moderate finish. What lingers is a primarily tannic flavour. While I would smell that nose all day, the flavour journey is too quick for me. In my head I shouted "wait, I'm just getting started!" as I flailed my metaphorical arms. Some days do call for a mild pour, but I prefer Tomintoul's expressions with a few more years on them.  6.5/10

As workhorse of the blend industry, Tomintoul is one of the lesser-known Speyside distilleries. The nose of this 10-year-old expression is simple, muted and primarily fruity. Grapes, banana and hints of refined sugar intermingle with distant floral notes. Tasting thin, fragile and almost watery, this dram behaves like a blended Scotch. Mildly bitter spices, fudge and grainy citrus give way to a modest, nutty and refill cask-dominated finish that is still the best part of the experience. Not quite sure what to make of it. Was this whisky meant to be sold as a single malt? RATING: 2.7/5.0 stars ≙ 76 pts → SUBPAR [+]