Cù Bòcan gains declaration of age
The Tomatin distillery first chipped whisky using peaty, smoky malt in late 2005. This is the official version. It is semi-officially known that attempts with peat malt were made in Tomatin many years earlier. Limited editions of Tomatin Cù Bòcan from the 1988-1990 vintages appeared on the market, so sporadic attempts at chipping peaty whisky must have taken place there earlier, but it was in 2005 that regular winter production began. As the distillate obtained in winter conditions with the low temperatures around proved extremely promising, a certain amount of distillate has been produced annually at Tomatin ever since, using peat-smoked malt. The whisky produced in this way was first bottled in 2010 in a limited edition and was destined for the Japanese market. However, it took another three years for a new, peaty version of Tomatin to see the light of day, Cù Bòcan. Over time, the reference to the distillery's name was dropped, and for some time now you can find Cù Bòcan malt whisky on the market, which only insiders know comes from Tomatin.
The use of peat malt was not the last experiment the makers of Cù Bòcan engaged in. Over time, the whisky went into a whole range of different types of barrels, and consumers got Cù Bòcan from stout beer barrels, Moscatel wine barrels, cabernet sauvignon barrels from Morocco, and even Japanese shochu barrels. To date, however, with the exception of occasional limited editions, Cù Bòcan has been a liquor with no age declaration. This state has just changed.
Cù Bòcan15yo 2022 Edition, just debuting on world markets, is a whisky that includes a certain amount of that first historic 2005 distillate. It was bottled as a beverage with a strength of 50% vol., without the involvement of coloring caramel, bypassing cold filtration. Whisky aged entirely in oloroso sherry casks. The edition just debuting is expected to be the first such 15-year-old bottled since then annually. According to the producer, the beverage offers notes of sun-dried fruits, exotic spices, roasted orange peel, roasted toffee, cherries and cardamom.
Purchase of a single bottle Cù Bòcan 15yo means an expense of £95.
Located just outside the western border of the Speyside region, slightly south of Inverness, the Tomatin distillery was founded in 1897, riding a wave of optimism about the future of the Scottish distilling industry. In the second half of the 20th century it was the largest Scotch malt whisky maker, since 1986 in Japanese hands (Takara Shuzo Company and Okara & Co.), where it remains to this day. For a long time it served as a maker of one of the ingredients of blended whiskies, although among connoisseurs the vintage editions of Tomatin from the 1960s and 1970s are highly regarded. As a distillery owned by a Japanese company, it has also had its fair share of Japanese whisky market creation, but this is decidedly unofficial, as has, for example, Ben Nevis.
In the current offer of the House of Whisky Online you can find a wide selection of whisky from the Tomatin distillery, both the peat-free and peat-based ones. We invite you to visit.
[05.10.2022 / photo: Tomatin]