Tomatin Distillery — Highland Single Malt Whisky

Tomatin Distillery is a Scotch whisky distillery located in the village of Tomatin, in the Monadhliath Mountains about 15 miles south of Inverness, Highland, Scotland. It was founded in 1897 and is currently owned by the Japanese group Takara Shuzo Co., Ltd. Once the largest malt whisky distillery in Scotland by capacity, Tomatin is known for a gentle, fruit-forward house style matured largely in ex-bourbon and sherry casks.

History

Tomatin's roots as a distilling site are said to go back to the 15th or 16th century, when the area's soft water and remote glens made it a favoured spot for illicit stills. The legal distillery was formally registered in 1897 as the Tomatin Spey District Distillery Company, taking advantage of a new Highland Railway line that had reached the village a few years earlier. The business struggled in its early decades and closed in 1906, before being bought by wine and spirits merchants and reopened as the New Tomatin Distillers Company Ltd.

Tomatin expanded steadily through the twentieth century, growing from just two stills in the late 1950s to twenty-three stills by 1974, at which point it was capable of producing around 12.5 million litres of spirit a year, making it the largest malt whisky distillery in Scotland. The whisky boom that fuelled this expansion did not last, and the wider downturn in Scotch demand during the early 1980s pushed the company into receivership in 1985. In February 1986, Tomatin was bought by the Japanese firms Takara Shuzo and Okura & Co., making it the first Scotch malt distillery to come under Japanese ownership. Production capacity was scaled back to a more sustainable level, and the site today operates twelve stills. The majority of Tomatin's output still goes into blended whiskies, including the Antiquary and Talisman blends, alongside a growing single malt range and the lightly peated Cù Bòcan brand.

Quick Facts

• Region: Highland, Scotland
• Founded: 1897
• Owner: Takara Shuzo Co., Ltd. (via Tomatin Distillery Co.)
• Status: Active
• Stills: 6 wash stills, 6 spirit stills

Core Range

Tomatin's core single malt range is built around the entry-level Legacy (43% ABV, bourbon and virgin oak casks) and the 12 Year Old (43% ABV, bourbon and Oloroso sherry casks), with older expressions including a 14 Year Old Tawny Port finish and an 18 Year Old (46% ABV, finished in Oloroso sherry butts). Older statutory releases stretch to 30 and 36 Year Old bottlings. Alongside the core Tomatin line sits Cù Bòcan, a lightly peated single malt distilled for just one week each year, typically bottled around 46% ABV.