A miniseries where I put 2 Island whiskies head to head, just because I can. This week, It’ll be a battle between 2 distilleries from the Hebrides as I put one of the new kids in town up against a well-established, but often overlooked Island whisky. And when I say ‘new kid in town’, I do of course mean that it’s a young distillery – Raasay (just north of the Isle of Skye) saw the light of day in 2017 and has only been releasing whisky for a couple of years. There was a very young inaugural release back in 2020, but the first ‘core range’ expression only saw the light of day in June of 2021 – less than 4 years ago. It’s fair to say Raasay hit the ground running. Part of that was of course due to the excitement many off us felt at that time about the whole new wave of 21st distilleries coming to fruition – being in the right place at the right time, so to speak, but they merited that excitement of course purely by themselves as what we saw and tasted from Raasay clearly appealed to many (illustrated by them bagging the 2024 OSWA’s for best ‘new distillery’).
On the other hand we have Tobermory on Mull. Famed an praised for their heavily peated Ledaig, their unpeated sibling under the Tobermory brand seems to have its work cut out if it aspires to get as much praise and appreciation as the Ledaig releases. I feel as if most of you are at least aware of the rather bizarre history and background surrounding the only distillery on the Isle of Mull. For starters, it changed names more than a few times, switching between Ledaig and Tobermory and back again, only to (finally) settle on the current name at the start of the new millennium. As these things go, changing a company’s name, any company’s name, often indicates that business wasn’t exactly thriving, and this very much applies to Tobermory as well. Both in the 19th and the 20th centuries it was closed several times, often for decades at a time, and when it finally reopened in the late 1980’s, it wasn’t exactly to cater to the discerning customer, shall we say. Much like, say, Loch Lomond, it was bottom shelf single malt and it remained that way until halfway the 1990’s Burn Stewart took over and started altering the distillery’s course. New 10 yo core range expressions for both Tobermory and Ledaig were to turn things around, and while the Ledaig 10 soon gained a firm nod of approval from many, it’s fair to say the Tobermory 10 was struggling to keep up. Then, in 2017 (Coincidentally the same year Isle of Raasay distillery was founded), the decision was made to shut down production for a few years to modernise the distillery and replace part of the equipment, which resulted in the old 10 yo being replaced by a 12 yo as their core range expression. Interestingly, where initially most of the 1 million LPA capacity from the distillery was used to make the unpeated Tobermory, due to the success of the peated Ledaig expressions, over time, this has shifted to a more or less 50-50 approach, and it’s been whispered that the scale will shift even further with an emphasis on Ledaig after they also successfully launched their NAS Sinclair series in 2020, which was finished in Rioja casks.
Tobermory 12 yo, 2022 release. 46.3% ABV, NC, UCF, app. €50 - €55 (£45-£50) and widely available.
Overripe fruit – mostly oranges, making that mixture of sweet and sour notes tilt towards the sweeter end as this is further emphasised by notes of vanilla and honey. There’s a whiff of a synthetic glue/antiseptic note, but it works quite well. Notes of wood and cereal and something gently coastal in the shape of a mineral and salty touch.
Palate
Woody and salty, making the fruit somewhat subdues. Medium texture. Something slightly oily and viscous in there too. There’s some darker notes of caramel and treacle with spice notes in the mix – mainly clover and a whiff of pepper.
Finish
Medium long and woody and most of all there’s the salinity that lingers through.
Isle of Raasay lightly peated (R-02.2), 2023 release. 46.4% ABV, NC, UCF, matured in rye casks, chinquapin oak and Bordeaux red wine casks, app. €50 (£45) and available in selected markets
Nose
Sweet peat and berries. Soft mineral note with a decent dash of salinity into it. Creamy, as in somewhat cheesy and umami. Overall youthful but still a decent balance between spirit and casks, meaning that both the rye and the wine casks seem understated, but nonetheless prevent this from being entirely spirit driven. The casks combo in this one might seem weird on paper, but it actually works a treat.
Palate
Again the peat takes centre stage and embraces everything else: the berries, the coastal notes, that umami sweetness… all circle around it, making it quite harmonious and very much in sync. Youthful, almost playful even, but full of flavour and again a very pleasing balance on a medium-full texture.
Finish
Surprisingly I’m getting a hint of wood now, with gentle peat mixed in. it’s the berries however that return in all their glory.
Final Thoughts
Two ‘coastal’ drams, but they are very different animals indeed. Whereas the old Tobermory 10 had something slightly waxy and coastal, reminding me a bit of a (less exciting) Clynelish, I feel the 12 yo is sort of lacklustre and very middle of the road. It’s perfectly OK and very palatable, let there be no misunderstanding about that, but it’s also quite ‘average’, in the sense that it’s like the common denominator of what you’d expect whisky to be, and I feel it lacks a bit distinguishing itself from other whiskies. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried higher age Tobermory, (18 years and up) but the few I tried were absolutely gorgeous. That’s where things becomes a bit frustrating, because while Tobermory seems to be one of those malts that indeed do get better with (quite some) age, they also tend to become eye wateringly expensive. Seeing how this 12 yo tends to be very reasonably priced, however, I wouldn’t mind having a bottle in the cabinet, if only to have something uncomplex and unobtrusive for casual yet decent drinking. But rocking my world this most certainly did not.
The Raasay on the other hand, is indeed something to celebrate. While similarly priced as the 12yo Tobermory, this 5 yo -ish is a bit like a loveable brat: cheeky, fun, lively, expressive and busy but also fun and uncomplicated. I like this, a lot! I do recommend you give Dave Broom’s ‘A sense of place’ a read, as he dedicates a couple of pages on Raasay – both the isle and the distillery, and he really captivates what it means to bring something quintessential Scottish to a remote and tiny populated place like Raasay. While it may not have ‘provenance’ in the sense of tradition, what the people at Raasay distillery are doing is vital to the local community -emphasising on locality, and by reading Broom’s words, it really helps you to get a better understanding of what this means. Truly means, I mean.
Next week: more battle of the islands, where the north takes on the south (as in Orkney vs Arran!)
Enjoyed this little competition. My experiences with Tobermory were a bit different though as I had a 10yr sample in an Advent calendar a few years ago that may have been the worst of the selection 😆, only to reluctantly try a 12yr sample several months later and find it decent 🤔. Enjoyed your thoughts on both regardless, though TBH I don't see either squeezing their way onto my crowded shelves. Cheers!