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Water of Life – Tomatin

Located in the Scottish Highlands, Tomatin is a distillery with a longstanding history that under new ownership started to elevate its endeavours to new heights from the 1990s onward, which established them as one of the more distinguished distillers from the region on the firmament of whisky lovers.

My first exposure to Tomatin was their entry level Legacy expression, which was launched in 2013 as the distillery’s entry-level non-age statement whisky. Matured in ex-Bourbon barrels and then finished for around a year in virgin oak casks.

What tickles the nostrils in deliciously vanillin in nature, framed by zesty citrus notes that are highlighted by tropical fruits and caramel notes, counterpointed by a florally herbal backdrop that has just the faintest hint of beautiful smoke.

The vanilla fully unveils its powers on the top of the mouth, serenaded by cider flavours and just a hint of spice and pepper, the latter of which is more prominent in the medium finish that also incorporates some astringent components.

With an ABV of 43% and reasonably priced, this is a solid entry-level whisky that opens up with a few drops of water and exposure to air.

Taking things up a notch is the 12-Year-Old expression, which on the nose already presents itself as more complex with a bouquet of oaky maltiness, honeyed vanilla, raisins and layers of grass and herbal aromas.

On the palate, oaky, peppery spice nuances take turns with vanilla, cidery apples, mint and sweet smoke, resting on a foundation of buttery sweetness with characteristics derived from the maturation in Oloroso Sherry casks.

The finish is just beautiful with marmalade, barley and currant flavours weaving themselves in with vanilla.

Tomatin Sherry Cask is quite something as it is well-calibrated and balances the fine line between having the characteristics of the cask without sacrificing subtle notes of barley, honeyed apricots and sherries, backed by dark chocolate and delightful leather notes. Stating that it is “well-calibrated” would be an understatement par excellence as this expression hits a palatable sweet spot, starting with subdued flavours before the volume is turned up but never beyond the point of making sense of individual nuances contributing to the whole.

The aromas are sweet, with the expected Sherry notes taking turns with lemongrass and dried fruits meeting raisiny dark chocolate, framed by oak, honey and caramel.

What materialized on the palate makes me smack my lips as a beautiful melange of fruits, oak, ginger and clover meet nutty flavours and a dominating streak of honey that then culminates in chocolatey territory.

So far, so good.

Enter Tomatin Cask Strength.  Matured in a combination of ex-Bourbon barrels and Oloroso sherry casks, clocking in at an ABV of 57.7%, this baby knocks things out of the park.

The Tomatin typical vanilla notes tickle the nostrils along with a well-calibrated melange of apples, pears, bananas and peachy notes, sitting on a robust foundation of malt and barley, punctuated by earthy and grassy notes that eave in sugary undertones and cinnamon.

If you think that the aromas are a handful, wait until you taste the drop as this is where the Cask Strength really sings. Starting off with sweet berry notes along with orange and citrussy highlights, it meanders via peppery spicy territory via ginger and salty bits to arrive at chocolatey cinnamon and nutmeg around an okay core.

The finish is elongated and combines the highlights of the aforementioned flavours in a nuanced crescendo, with sophisticated notes of vanilla reverberating long after.

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photo from company website

Rone - Street Art and Beyond

Thames & Hudson

The unofficial and independent nature of what is labelled as “street art” is both its appeal as well as something that can be questioned as it is at times perceived to be a mere free-for-all and oftentimes hardly more than vandalism.

On the other end of the spectrum are artists like Banksy and Shepard Fairy who not only take art to the next level by bringing across underlying messages, but are masters in incorporating the natural surroundings into their art, not merely as a background but as means to amplify and enhance their creations.

Rone is an Australian artist who has honed his craft over the last two decades, evolving from local screen printing and stencilling to what has become his trademark large-scale murals that now adorn buildings all around the world.

What makes Rone’s art idiosyncratic is the perfectly orchestrated play with the often deteriorated state of the buildings that become his canvas for his graceful paintings, which often juxtapose bloom and atrophy. Given that his art is immersed in derelict spaces the fact that it is only temporary and soon to be destroyed is inherent, which adds yet another dimension to his approach and more than justifies the purchase of this tome.

Rone: Street Art and Beyond chronicles and provides a comprehensive overview of Rone’s oeuvre and is possibly the only way to get a hold of his often short-lived art.

I specifically like that not only his street art is shed light on, but it is also elaborated on how he channels his alchemy in his studio, which again gives an idea of the painstakingly planning and attention to detail that goes into his endeavours before he brings them to life in the wild.

Essays and anecdotes accompany the depictions of his boundary pushing immersive art installations and make this coffee table book a mandatory study for anyone remotely interested in what street art can be.

Thus Let Us Drink Beer - Eden Brewery

Independent craft breweries in Australia are popping up not unlike mushrooms, most of which emit fantastically creative brews, others could be labelled at least in the “interesting” category, with passion for the craft seeming to be the common denominator.

Eden Brewery that that ticks the aforementioned boxes but adds a layer that a lot of its contemporaries lack, i.e. attention is paid to their and the global community, following the credo “think global – act local” with a percentage of their profits dedicated to Oxfam and a focus on sustainability and the minimisation of their carbon foot print and using renewable energy in their brewery. An approach not further wondrous given that Eden is operated by a wife and husband team at its core, who worked in the care and missionary field before.

Eden’s core range is spearheaded by their Kottbusser expression, with the former paying homage to the German Reinheitsgebot, limiting ingredients to pure essentials such as honey, molasses, oats and wheat. True to German style yet with an idiosyncratic Australian twist, this one goes down a treat after a hot day with its malty backbone, sweet highlights and well-balanced bitterness.

Phoenix D is a variant that sits well next to the Kottbusser as it adds a honey flavour to the equation. This might be an acquired taste to some, but I specifically enjoy it to complement a boilermaker with a cask strength Islay whisky.

As the name suggests, Eden Brewery’s Ponderosa IPA is a melange of piny hops from the Western region of the new world being married to locally grown barley, which results in what one would expect, i.e. hoppy fruitiness resting on a dry backbone. Would love to try this one in a can or straight from the tap, as it seemed to be bit flat from the bottle.

My favourite of Eden Brewery’s portfolio is the Birch Wit. Clocking in at 5.2% ABV, this is a wheat beer in the Belgian tradition with crispy, citrussy wheaty aromas and flavours throughout.

The golden Palm Pale Ale is more of a sessional one with its relatively low ABV of 4.5%. Heavy on galaxy hops, fruitiness is the name of the game before being rounded out by a welcome bitterness.

Looking forward to Eden Brewery’s future emissions given that they seem to have found their niche with honouring traditional brewing methods from the old world with a contemporary innovative twist.

Water of Life – Annandale Distillery

Having effectively started its operations  in 1830, Annandale Distillery is one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland – shame on me that it had not been on my radar so far, especially since the revamp and restoration of the distillery in 2007 saw the eventual release not only of unpeated but also peated varieties with its tribute to the seventh Earl of Annandale, i.e. the Man o’Words / Man o’Sword ranges to honour Robert the Bruce.

Annandale Man o’Words portfolio is comprised of a range of expressions that have been matured in either different single casks or a combination of carefully selected ones.

As the sherry expression indicated, the Lowland Man O' Words’ was matured in  a single Oloroso sherry butt and upon uncorking, the fresh zestyness is almost overwhelming in the most beautiful manner as cherries, nutty nuances, vanilla and apple flavours dance on a foundation of pine.

The fruity appeal that enticed the nose is continued on the top of the roof with a salty peatiness and a subtle smoke being married with dried pears, apple cider, sweet grapefruits and a malty backbone that is perforated by highlights of spicy pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon, while being enhanced by a woody oakyness.

Specifically the peppery nuances make the elegant, elongated finish exciting as an earthy maltiness grounds and bookends the meandering between peaty, nutty and sweet territory. Lip smackingly impressive!

An interesting specimen is Annandale’s New Make, i.e. the Rascally Liquor Malt, which comes in peated and unpeated variants and illustrates the development and evolution to what eventually is refined to enter the Man o’Words / o’Sword ranges.

I am not usually the biggest fan of New Make, but I’d get used to sipping Annandale’s as the wight peppery aromas and flavours that are accentuated by lime, honey and peat, are much more complex than what I would have expected. Given the quality and complexity of the New Make, it adds depth, perspective and dimension to Annandale’s core range and made me revisit the Man o’Word with a new lens only to discover more subtle nuances.

Annandale’s Nation of Scots is – as the name suggests – somewhat of a big and bold flagship expression. Not unlike with Man o’Word where they proudly honour their Scottish heritage, the Nation of Scots expression is an homage to a triumvirate of Scottish heroes and luminaries, i.e. William Wallace, Alexander Graham Bell and Walter Scott with the underlying idea being to translate the characteristics of each of the protagonists into their whisky.

As the premise is that of a melange of characteristics to create a whole that is bigger than the mere sum of its constituents, it should not come as a surprise that the Nation of Scots is a blended variety.

Aroma-wise, we are greeted by vanilla and wafts of mouth-watering smoke and peat that are framed by apricots, apples and toffee notes.

The Nation unveils its characteristics fully on the top of the mouth as not only the woody smokiness is unleashed but enters dialogues with spicy barley and sweet highlights reminiscent of breakfast cereal.

The smokiness transcends all the way to the medium-length finish, which is beautifully perforated by lingering peppery highlights.

With what I have been able to sample so far, Annandale has instantaneously catapulted itself amongst my favourite newer distilleries and once travel restrictions are lifted, will warrant a visit to the source to explore their expressions further.

Water of Life – McNair

We have covered the fantastic Speyside distillery GlenAllachie and their tremendous expressions in all their glory as part of our series before, so when I became aware that its master distiller was going to channel his alchemy in blending peated and unpeated whiskies from both Speyside and Islay, it instantaneously established itself firmly on my to-try list.

Under the moniker McNair, a triumvirate of blended whiskies was released housed in a striking packaging and it could not wait to see what the new expressions were going to be like.

McNair’s entry level peated Lum Reek clocks in at 46% ABV and having been matured in a variety of casks, i.e. first-fill Bourbon, Oloroso sherry, virgin oak and red wine casks, hopes for an exquisite complexity were set high from the get-go.

Given my preferences, I was quite delighted when wafts of gentle smoke were amongst the first aromas that tickled my nostrils, framed by peaty outlines that are inhabited by apples, vanilla, pears and overall sweet notes that nuancefully play with the Islay notes.

The top of the roof experiences an extension of what the nose promised, i.e. honeyed peat, highlights of dark chocolate sprinkled with gingery spice, just a tad of zesty, citrussy tanginess and a seaside saltiness.

As expected, McNair’s Lum Reek 12-Year-Old takes things up a notch in terms of the aforementioned aromas and flavours being more pronounced: On the nose, the hint of smoke now enters bonfire-y territory and the accompanying aromas are more subtle, with cinnamon, dark chocolate and citrus being amongst the more prominent.

The palate is caressed with a nice creaminess texture that carries a foundation of delicious peat on which cocoa, gingery cinnamon and honeyed chocolate.

The medium-length finish is informed more of the delicate creaminess that now reverberates the bitter lemony chocolate notes around butterscotch flavours and keeps riffing on the peatiness.

Now, going about this feature in a vertical manner, we now come to the expected crescendo, i.e. MacNair’s Lum Reek 21-Year-Old.

Upping the ABV to 48% and having been matured in Oloroso sherry, Virgin Oak and red wine casks, this one ups the game quite significantly.

Upon uncorking, the nose is greeted with a bouquet of mouth-watering smoky peat. Ahhh! In the peaty aftermath there is a lot to be discovered, as there are stone fruits, nutty chocolate, pineapple, coconuts and cherries.

On the palate, things get complex fast: Everything that the nose promised is there, however, it is no longer compartmentalized and now the peaty smoke cross-pollinates the berries, tropical flavours interact with heathery honey and dark chocolate is married with liquorice. Delicioso!

The elongated finish bookends a veritable experience, that draws on the beauty and power of peat without being overwhelming, with loads of subtle nuance to discover.

In my world, McNair just raised the bar in blending excellence with smoke at its very core and I can only join in with the traditional Scottish toast and chant "Long may your lum reek!", i.e. an encouragement to ensuring that your chimney keeps firing on.

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image from company website