Tomintoul Old Ballantruan 15 Year Old Review

The Old Ballantruan 15 has been without doubt the whisky which I have most enjoyed in 2019.

Runner-up’s have been the Kilchoman 100% Islay 9^th edition, Deanston 12 and Arran Machrie Moor Cask Strength.

This Old Ballantruan from Tomintoul distillery, (Angus Dundee) has been the only whisky which has completely overawed me with a sense of all-encompassing pure whisky pleasure. But I'm jumping ahead of myself.

First, the details.

The Name

I have copy/pasted this from the Old Ballantruan site.

http://www.oldballantruan.com/about-us/

“Old Ballantruan takes its name from an exceptional source of the purest of waters, the Ballantruan spring, nestled in the Cromdale Hills close to Tomintoul, the highest village in the Highlands of Scotland”.

I suppose it was a marketing decision of the parent company Angus Dundee, to separate the Old Ballantruan brand from the rest of Tomintoul distillery’s range even though it comes off the same stills by the Tomintoul staff and is matured in the same warehouses.

There are three single malts bearing the brand name “Old Ballantruan”. The No-Age-Statement, the 10-Year-Old (both of which I have already reviewed) and this limited edition 15-Year-Old.

Strangely, this 15-Year-Old does not appear in the site at all! I wonder why?

The Peat, The Casks and the Colour

According to the official site, this is a heavily peated (55 PPM) Tomintoul was made from barley which was malt dried with slow burning peat from a local peat bog in the Speyside region.

As I have explained in previous blog posts, mainland peat is completely different to island and coastal peat due to the different types of vegetation rotting in the peat bog. Coastal peat bogs contain coastal vegetation such as seaweed with a high salt content. Mainland peat contain more tree, heather and plant vegetation which results in a completely different peat smoke aroma and flavour experience.

The label states that this 15 Year-Old, like its younger siblings, was bottled at 50% abv and is Non-Chill-Filtered. However, I couldn’t help but notice its browny orange sun tan so I wrote to the manager of the Tomintoul, asking him to confirm the cask types and whether artificial colour had been added. To his credit, Robert Fleming answered me within a few days.

Email from Robert Fleming

To answer your questions:

1.       There isn’t any first fill bourbon used.  In 2003/04 we only filled second and third fill barrels and refill hogsheads.

2.       There is colour adjustment using E150a

We are always introducing new and exciting expressions so I hope you continue to enjoy our whiskies.

Rant 1: Colouring of Premium Single Malts

E150a refers to the trade code for Caramel colouring.

E150b/c are used in caramel sweets. E150d is used in Cola drinks. E150a is used to make whisky look like most people’s image of what the colour of whisky looks like!

Considering that this 15-Year-Old is a limited edition that comes with a premium price, it shouldn’t be targeted at the casual whisky drinker. That being the case, why on earth do they think it is a good idea to add artificial colour? The standard marketing reason which is almost always given is that adding colour gives every bottle from every batch, a standard colour which reassures the punter that they are buying the same consistently high quality product. If one bottle (which came from another batch run) was slightly more pale than the other bottled on the shelf then this would, as the thinking goes, lead to the customer thinking that there was something wrong with the product.

However, in my opinion, this argument only holds water for the lower end of the market aimed at casual drinkers. I would have thought that anyone who is willing to fork out £70-90 on a heavily peated specialised limited edition bottle like this would already be quite aware that single malt whisky can have colour variations from batch to batch, depending upon the types and ages of casks used. Moreover, unless the distillery vats (or marries) all the casks together from a single batch, before bottling, then even bottles within the same batch, will have colour variations. Every cask, even if comes from the same source and even if it was made from the same wood in the same cooperage, can still have slight colour as well as flavour differences. That’s the beauty of single malt whisky. This fact should be celebrated and not hidden under a blanket of e150a caramel colouring. It is about time that distilleries learnt this lesson. Non Chill-Filtered is fantastic but let’s also see “Natural Colour” as well. I believe that at this price level, a natural presentation will attract far more sales than a constant but artificial colour.

Okay, my first rant is officially over. Now prepare for yet another rant about…

Rant 2: So called expert tasting notes which turn out to be complete nonsense

I wonder just where these Whisky store sites get their tasting notes from? Master of Malts Internet Site describes this Old Ballantruan 15 as tasting of “raisins and sherry”. Yet, as I have already stated, this expression is in fact 100% Ex-Bourbon cask matured. This is as far from sherry and raisins flavour notes as you could possibly get!

Over the years, I have actually come across quite a few whisky reviews, both written and on YouTube, where the reviewer talks about ““sherry” flavour notes, yet absolutely no Ex-Sherry casks have been used to mature the whisky!

Although flavours are to a certain extent subjective, most people could accurately describe flavours put into a cake, be they chocolate, lemon or caramel. The problem with describing a whisky as having a sherry flavour is that hardly any of these reviewers in truth, have ever drank a good quality sherry and port before in their lives and don’t actually know what they taste like.

Even worse, most base their description of sherry on cheap liquor cream sherries like Harvey’s Bristol Cream. Therefore, they very often mistake well-made distillation new-make-spirit with the flavour of cream sherry due to the fact that the spirit, straight off the stills, can have a lovely white wine taste. Perhaps this combined with sweet wood spicy notes leads them to start talking about sherry flavours.

Similarly, some reviewers start talking about peatiness when the whisky is in fact unpeated. What they are identifying as peat is quite often heavily charred oak casks that impart a woody smokiness to the whisky. However, with just a little experience you can differentiate between the sweet caramel smokiness of the charred wood and the earthy forest or coastal bonfire smoke of peat. They are completely different.

The Old Ballantruan 15. 46% abv. Price £67 (UK).

Kosher Certification by the OU, printed on the back of the label.

I have already written an extensive and very positive review of the two standard Old Ballantruan releases in a previous blog and was really looking forward to trying the 15-Year-Old, ever since Douglas Fitchett, manager of Glencadam, (sister distillery to Tomintoul), notified me that they had just released it. It proved however quite difficult to track down and did not appear in any of the online stores until quite recently.

Well, last November, we were in the beautiful town of Inveraray in Argyll, where I spied this bottle in a small independent specialist whisky shop called “Fyne Malts of Inveraray” on Main Street East, (not to be confused with the much larger whisky chain specialist shop across the road, entitled “The Loch Fyne Whiskies”).

Packaging

The canister and bottle style are pretty generic and typical of Tomintoul, but the artwork really stands out. The question is, for good or for bad? It basically consists of a dark milk chocolate background. On top of this, at the front of the canister is a silhouette of workers digging up peat with a dramatic golden orange-red sunset behind them. Finally, we have two wrap-around fake gold leaf labels at the bottom overlaying the scene with the text “Aged 15 Years”, sandwiched in-between.

Some might say this artwork is romantically dreamlike with rich warm colours which catches the eye, others however might say its loud, gaudy and garish?

Personally, it reminds me of gift boxes of chocolates or even exotic holiday brochures full of sunsets, from the 1980s.

So, it was Friday night and we had all the family round, including the grandkids. After Kiddush and HaMotzei, everyone settled down to enjoy the Challa and Chopped Liver, eggs and onions, followed by Mushroom and Onion soup, whilst we caught up with all the family news. I started off by serving a lovely light refreshing and very unusual Glen Moray Rhum Agricole, which I had ordered online from “Master of Malt” in the UK.

After singing some Zemiros and a powerful Dvar Torah by my son-in-law, we moved on to the main course of Roast Beef, Kishke and Coleslaw. To accompany this, I served the lightly peated Bowmore Cask Strength Tempest V. This is the whisky I’d serve to anyone as an introduction to Islay peated whiskies. Far from being what the name “Tempest” implies, this is a very approachable and gentle dram with very wide appeal.

For most at the table, two drams is the limit but whilst the rest of my family were enjoying all the home made cakes provided by my daughter and daughter-in-laws, I decided to crack open this new bottle of Old Ballantruan 15, just to try the neck fill, to get a hint of what it was like.

Initial Impressions

Like most whiskies which you have only just opened, especially at high abv (alcohol by volume) strengths, you must not judge it as it will only reach its full potential after a few weeks. However, this one broke all the rules!

It was so utterly delicious and the experience so all encompassing, that I sat there mumbling to myself, “Wow. This is incredible. Oh Wow!!”

In short, I was experiencing the most enjoyable whisky tasting experience of the whole year. It was that good.

Tasting Notes

Colour and Texture

As mentioned above, just like the fake sunset on the label, the whisky itself does have a fake orange brown suntan. All’s the pity. I would have liked to have seen the natural colour which is probably more like a pale straw yellow.

The Non-Chill-Filtering really shows as you swirl it around in your Glencairn glass. The syrupy treacle like viscosity of the liquid leaves globules of liquid behind that stick like barnacles on the side of a ship.

Aroma

From the very first smell and sip, I knew that it was going to be one of those increasingly rare "Wow" whisky moments.

The first thing you notice is a warming, soft all enveloping smoke or as they in Scotland, “Peat Reek” *1

This isn’t coastal peat but more like smouldering dry forest leaves and wood bark. It is a sweeter smoke than the 10-Year-Old, with all the harsh edges ironed out. Yet, it seems more powerful and all embracing.


It's like a lovely cosy relaxing warm open fireplace, whose heat completely envelops you like a comforting cosy blanket or old woolly jumper.

Let’s be clear about one thing. This is a heavily peated whisky at 55PPM (and believe me, this is up there with the big boys), but, in my opinion, has the ability to endear even those who don't usually enjoy heavily peated whiskies, to it. This is because the Peat-Reek, combined with all the other rich flavours, is just so silky soft and enticing.

When your nose finally acclimatises to the peat, you start to become aware of all the other notes. There are aromas of a concoction of lovely luscious ripe yellow fruits. Grilled pineapple, yellow apples, chardonnay grapes, sweet honey and treacle cake.

Along with the peat, you have wood brisket style smoke as well.  Along with this comes the smell of a new leather armchair, dry sweet vanilla, pineapple juice and fruity charcoal wood smoke, golden ripe sultana, caramelised crunchy apple strudel, smoky yellow custard. There is a touch of parev bitter chocolate with slight coffee beans perhaps?

Taste

It is a heavy, relaxing, like a warm bath experience when sipping this. Sweet wood vanilla spices, smoky creamy burnt Dulce Deleche caramel (Ribat Chalav). Apple strudel which is slightly burnt and crunchy at the ends, where the apple and sugar have crystallised and caramelised. Vanilla Marshmallows and coconut pieces roasting on the fire.

Finish

Smoky raisin and vanilla ice cream, a sprinkling of cinnamon and other sweet wood spices, with burnt biscuit chips, golden ripe sultanas. No! On second thoughts, that's too cold a description. This is hot ice cream, like a creamy vanilla, pineapple, cinnamon and apple milky drink.

The taste remains in the mouth which is why I would seriously recommend that you leave this to the last dram of the evening. Like the Afikoman on Leil HaSeder, you want to go to bed with the taste of this still in the mouth.

This was without doubt; the most enjoyable whisky I have had the pleasure of drinking in 2019.

*1. Isn't it interesting how the English word "reek", today means "a bad smell", yet seems to come from the Gaelic and Norwegian, Danish and eastern European "Reek", meaning smoke? Is smoke always a negative aroma note? Not in this case! Incidentally, this word is remarkably similar to the Hebrew word for smell or aroma, which is רֵיחַ - “Rei’ach", (pronounced like the distillery BenRiach, which interestingly, in Hebrew, would be "The Source" of Aroma”).