Tomatin Sherry Collection on Taste; Music with Your Whisky; Matugga Rum

Hello everyone,

As promised last time, I‘m looking at the other two whiskies in the Tomatin Sherry Collection.

First of all, though, I was privileged again to help judge for an award recently. I was delighted going all round Scotland to see the number of brilliant young bartenders and bar managers – an encouraging number of them women – and plenty of younger customers frequenting these bars for the whisky experience. One in the eye for those who still have the perception of whisky as an older, mainly male, drink. I can only think they don‘t go to bars much. Maybe they spend too much time around old men who still believe that.

So, to the whiskies. The two still to cover are Tomatin The Palo Cortado Edition and Tomatin The Pedro Ximenez Edition.

Tomatin The Palo Cortado Edition is 15 years old and 46% abv, no chill-filtration and no added colour. Distilled in 2008, it spent its last three years in Palo Cortado butts and the price guide is £95 in UK.

Appearance: Shining amber with old gold highlights.

Nose: Sweet raisins and some sulphur notes; earthy. Sweet spices; leather; orange oil and some toffee. With water, more orange oil/zest at first; creamier toffee/caramel. Left to sit for a while, nuttier notes.

Palate: Medium weight, quite mouth-coating, peppery. Zesty citrus peel, sweet spices, oak and nuts. Some salt. Coffee grounds and leather.

Finish: Long, dry, spicy, earthy.

Tomatin The Pedro Ximenez Edition is 17 years old also at 46% with no chill-filtration and no added colour either. This had a much longer finishing period – eight years in former PX sherry casks.

Appearance: Rich amber with orange marmalade highlights.

Nose: A little closed at first then dried vine fruits begin to emerge. A slight waxy note before syrup, dark sugars and a touch of sulphur. Nuts and dark chocolate. With water, a little more sulphur and flatter waxy nose at first then more toffee, dark chocolate and ginger (ever tried chocolate gingers? Yum). Some damp oak wood. Left to sit a short while, richer, more sweetly sherried nose; buttery and apple notes; roasted nuts and roasted barley.

Palate: Tea-soaked raisins; tea leaves and tannins; a little sulphur; demerara sugar; damp oak and salt. Interestingly, more salt than the palo cortado version for me.

Finish: Long and very dry with wood tannins but some residual raisin sweetness and a touch of salt.

Price for this one goes up quite a notch to £150 in UK.

I‘ve looked over my notes for all three now, including the Manzanilla Edition featured last time and think the one I like most is the Palo Cortado Edition but all three are definitely worth more exploration. They make a great tasting session done all together.

Some weeks back I was offered a chance to join in a look at Glen Moray expressions with suggested music matches to listen to while drinking them, all to celebrate the visitor centre‘s 20th anniversary. Great idea! I was away and couldn‘t participate so they offered to send me samples of the whiskies with the music recommendations to accompany each one. My request to delay them due to my absence from home caused a hiccup and they arrived only last week. Not a problem, it‘s still a fun thing to try and I fully intend to do so when I get time. The four samples are with a list of about twenty music tracks suggested by Iain Allan and David McLauchlan from Glen Moray and musician, Felipe Schrieberg who commented, „Different sounds, tones and frequencies can radically shift the way your brain perceives the world around it, including the whisky you‘re smelling and tasting. As a result, there‘s few greater joys than pairing whiskies and music together“. Brand Ambassador, Iain Allan‘s four favourites are:

„Hard to Handle“ by the Black Crowes – Glen Moray Port Cask Finish

„Walk on By“ by Dionne Warwick- Glen Moray 15 Year Old

„Red Right Hand“ by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (great choice) – Glen Moray 21 Year Old

„I Hope That I Don‘t Fall in Love with You“ by Tom Waites – Glen Moray Warehouse 1 Peated Rioja.

You can listen to all of these, with your whiskies alongside, at Glen Moray x spotify. A Tom Waits track I love is „The Piano Has Been Drinking“ (maybe a bit obvious as a choice in this instance) so I need to find the whisky that matches that one. If you have a preferred piece of music you like to listen to with a particular whisky then do let me know via this website. Happy to share people‘s views.

Friday 16th August was National Rum Day. It‘s always good to give other fine spirits a shout out, but only if they‘re good quality. As it happens, I was at a drinks trade event in Edinburgh on Friday and our aperitif featured rum from Matugga Distillers Limited based in Livingston, a town outside Edinburgh if you‘re not familiar with it. Matugga is owned and run by Jacine and Paul Rutasikwa, with Jamaican and Ugandan heritage respectively. Paul is the distiller, trained at \Heriot-Watt University and Jacine the managing director, a marketeer by profession. The drinks we tried before lunch, their Spiced Rum (using a Masala Chai spice blend) with ginger ale and lime and their Golden Rum as a rum punch, were excellent. I understand the rum punch recipe is on the bottle. At Matugga they do also offer evening tasting tours. If you don‘t already have some in your establishment or haven‘t yet tasted it, do yourself a favour and visit or at least buy some to try. They‘re lovely people running a great business and deserve your support. Pic here taken from an article on the scottishrumfest.com website.

That‘s all for this time. I‘ll be back late August, all being well, with more. Till then, happy dramming.

Slainte mhath,

Caroline