Reviews of affordable whiskies with some entertaining tales along the way…
In part four of my look at single cask bottlings from Watt Whisky, I’ll be turning my attention to a 12-year-old Tormore. This series focuses on short, to-the-point reviews without any background fluff. If you would like to know more about the distillery or bottler, check out the links after the main review. The Watt Whisky Tormore is 12 years old, with 14 months of that time spent finishing in an ex-Rye cask. The spirit has been bottled at 59.3%.
*Full disclosure: the sample featured in this review was sent to me free of charge. As always I will strive to give an honest and impartial opinion on the quality of the dram and the value for money it represents.
Smell: Malt. Caramel. Honey. Plenty of warming spices like black pepper and clove. Woody – like freshly sawn oak and sawdust. Even a wee hint of varnish. Lemon sherbet. Foam bananas.
Taste: Rye bread. Lots of pepper. Malty biscuits. Nutty. Runny honey. Orange cream and milk chocolate. Pepper and long spicy oak tingle on the finish. Water brought out some caramel and shifted the spice to the back of the palate, although if anything it increased in intensity. Apple and lemon fizzy sweets.
Thoughts: The ex-Rye cask has certainly made its mark. It’s added some richness and spicy complexity to a malty, fruity, Speyside base and created something really interesting. It’s perhaps a bolder finish than we’re used to seeing from Watt Whisky but even though the spirit is at the lighter end of the spectrum in terms of body, it has enough going on to not be completely lost under the finish. It comes across as something a little bit different and in an indie bottling market of limited stocks, where the same distillery names pop up again and again, that’s no small achievement.
Price: £70. A fairly reasonable price for a single cask whisky 10 – 12 years in age going by today’s market and its uniqueness no doubt increases its desirability.
Further reading:
For an update on Tormore Distillery read: https://whiskyreviews.net/2022/06/21/news-elixir-distillers-acquires-tormore-distillery/
For more on Watt Whisky visit: https://wattwhisky.com/