Tomintoul Mystery Drams

 "You've got to be in it to win it" is a common shout when talking about competitions and in this case I was and I did! I added my name into the hat for a Tomintoul Mystery Dram Tasting and won!

So a couple of days later a parcel arrived containing 3 mystery drams....

@TomintoulWhisky is known as The Gentle Dram, the distillery being one of two owned by @AngusDundee, the other is @GlencadamWhisky.

Tomintoul is a relatively young distillery, built in 1964 by Whyte & Mackay to support their blends. Angus Dundee bought it in 2000 again to support their blends which include Parkers, Glen Kirk, Glen Parker, Scottish Royal and others - they have been in the blending business for over 60 years.

They have a large number of reciprocal trading agreements where they swap casks of malt with other distillers to help match blending recipes. Tomintoul typically has Speyside honey and orchard fruit notes.


The three bottles I received were labelled A, B, C but we tried them in the order A, C, B...

A zoom call was organised and brand ambassador Clare Tesh took us through the three drams, not revealing their identities until we'd nosed, tasted and shared our thoughts.

My brief thoughts:

Dram A
Nose: Honey, orchard fruit.
Palate: Delicate - honey and orchard fruit from the nose with a little icing sugar and oaky vanilla, there's a nice peppery spice bite as the liquid disappears.

Finish: Lingering peppery spice and orchard fruit.

Dram C
Nose: Toffee popcorn, buttery, nutty with a hint of smoke or cask char.
Palate: Thick full bodied arrival, smooth and buttery, drying icing sugar and peppery spice..

Finish: Lingering peppery spice.

Dram B
Nose: Berries, cherries, plums, icing sugar, milk chocolate.
Palate: Thick smooth arrival, very dry, sweet with a little spice, biscuit and marzipan notes.

Finish: Dry lingering berry notes.

So what were they?

Dram A : Tomintoul 25yo 43% ABV

Dram C : Tomintoul 14yo 46% ABV

Dram B : Tomintoul Seiridh 40% ABV

Many thanks to Tomintoul for the drams, Clare for leading the tasting and my fellow winners for taking part and making an enjoyable evening.

@dailydrambyalex was also a lucky winner - his thoughts on the tasting are here!