Tomatin Distillery Tour Review[photos]Highland-scotland
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We moved from Perth to the town of Inverness, and the first place we went was Tomatin Distillery.
We went by bus from Inverness.
Since it’s run by Japan’s Takara Shuzo, a Japanese video played at the end too.
We’d known of Tomatin’s whisky but hadn’t had many chances to drink it, and this was a tour where, tasting it on-site while listening to the guide’s commentary, we got to experience the appeal of the Legacy whisky.
Here’s a look at our visit.
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目次
Features of the Distillery
It’s on the edge of the village of Tomatin, 24 km south of Inverness.
The name means “hill of juniper bushes” in Gaelic.
The area is home to the Hill of Parting connected to the Battle of Culloden of 1746, and the burn used for the mashing water is also called the Free Burn, connected to that battle.
Founded in 1897, after repeated expansions and rebuilds the pot stills grew to 23, with peak production of 12 million liters; it went bankrupt in the 1980s, and in 1986 Takara Shuzo and Okura & Co. acquired it — the first distillery owned by Japanese companies.
It was used as a malt for many blended Scotches, but since 2004 it has also focused on single malt.
Location/ Access
You can get there by bus from Inverness.
On the way there, when we told the driver we wanted to go to Tomatin Distillery, they dropped us off at the distillery entrance.
On the way back, we left the distillery entrance to the left and caught the bus from a stop standing all alone on the main road.
Cars were whizzing by and it was pretty scary waiting in the pitch dark, but we made it back safely.
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The Distillery’s Exterior
Since it’s in the mountains, there was snow on the ground even though we went in early December.
Incidentally, Inverness to the north had no snow.
It takes about a 10-minute walk from the entrance to finally reach the visitor center.
The Tour We Joined
We joined the basic tour.
An old mash tun that used to be in use was kept, and we could see it from the side.
The washbacks are made of steel. The scenery was beautiful too — it’s where the water source is.
The stills were large too.
The warehouse is dunnage style. They showed us the angels’ share.
Vintage casks were lined up, and we searched for our birth years.
We got to do a tasting of three kinds.
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Shop and Bar
There’s a bar at the back of the shop where you can do a tasting.
The guide was very friendly and talked with us a lot, which was really fun.
Summary
Of the 50 distilleries we visited, I’ve been keeping my own personal “sales director ranking” (for the people with the talk-skills to make you want to buy the whisky), and the guide at Tomatin Distillery was one of the top sales directors on that list.
Since the tour was just the two of us, we could take our time with the tasting and really enjoyed it.