Tomatin Kicks Four New Whisky Bottlings, Including 40-Year-Old, Into Duty Free

Duty free stores are a great place to score exclusive bottlings you can’t find through most normal retail channels. Scotch whisky producer Tomatin is now dropping four new expressions into that category, launching a new age statement-baed lineup, including a four decades old expression, into airports across Europe.

Here’s information from Tomatin on each of these bottlings:

• Introducing the series is the 8 year old, matured in Bourbon and Sherry casks.  The nose has aromas of vanilla-sweetened baked apples and pears developing into deeper dark fruit flavours, gently balanced with ginger and cinnamon for a sweet and spicy finish. Bottled at a strength of 40%.
• The Tomatin 12 Year Old is a 1 Litre version of the distiller’s flagship malt which has an array of accolades including a double gold from the San Francisco World Spirits competition 2016. With an ABV of 43%.
• Next up to board the range is the 15 year old, matured in North American Oak.  Light and fresh on the nose, charming citrus fruits are well balanced with emerging honey and toffee flavours, lingering softly on the palate for some time. Bottled at a strength of 46%.
• The final expression is a 40 year old malt matured in Oloroso Sherry casks.  According to the distillery this is a smooth and rounded triumph of dark and tropical fruits resulting in a big and fruity finish with just a touch of oak.  Bottled at 43%.

“We have been working on a strategy to establish our presence in the travel retail market for some time now in response to growing demand for Tomatin single malt on a global level,” said Stephen Bremner, sales director for Tomatin, in a prepared statement. “While the majority of Scotch brands have elected to present no-age statement duty free ranges, our collection of age statement whiskies provides a point of difference. This is a priority market for us as it provides an introduction to Tomatin for thousands of globe-trotters so we wanted to create a range that caters for all tastes and budgets, whether you’re a whisky novice or a high-end collector.”

Should you stumble across any of these expressions at travel retail, expect to pay €35 (about $40 USD), €42 (about $48 USD), €55 (about $62 USD) and €1,250 (about $1,400 USD) for the Tomatin 8-, 12-, 15- and 40-Year-Old releases, respectively.