Top scoring whiskys for £25

The other day a whisky article came up on hubby's mobile feed about the 2022 tasting results from the IWSC (International Wine and Spirit Competition). Being the alcoholic spirit lover he is, he searchd for the top performers, those who scored the maximum 99 points in competition. I'm told no one scores 100 points, maybe nothing is perfect?

Anyway, there were 14 spirits that scored 99 points, of which 5 were whisky. You can see the results here.

There was a very wide price range for the 5 whiskys. One of them, the Tomatin Distillery 1976 Single Mallt Scotch Whisky was all sold out so I don't know how much it cost. The 1978 bottle costs £2795, I'm guessing the 1976 won't be much cheaper. The cheapest of the five was priced at £24, also a Tomatin, the Legacy Single Malt Scotch Whisky, no age. And they all scored the same points in the blind test. Pretty amazing right? Same score in a blind test and one is 100 times more expensive.

Bit of a side note, we actually visited the Tomatin distillery in Scotland some years ago, and hubby tasted the Legacy Single Malt back then.

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Anyway, a (near to) full mark whisky at £24 sounded a really good offer so hubby immediately searched online for availabilty. He also found a second whisky on the list that was at £25. A few more clicks on his mobile phone and he was a happy bunny rubbing his hand with glee and anticipation. Fast forward 20 hours (yes, that's how fast it was) the package arrived the net morning. A bit too early in the day for a drink but never too early to unbox some goodies.

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As usual, the focus of my drinks rewview is mostly on the aesthetic of the bottle instead of the stuff inside.

£25 Black Bottle	£24 Tomatin

The Black Bottle looks exactly like its name, with a red ribbon across the front with its name. Hubby noticed it had a screw top instead of a cork, and thought that looked a little tacky. There was something about this bottle being an experiment, or part of an Alchemy, and if you look carefully at the label on the top left, you can see an image of a person in a lab.

The Tomatin bottle on the other hand was a bit normal. A clear bottle, where you can see front to back and back to front. It boasts an aroma of vanilla, white chocolate and fresh fruit. That sounds like a heaven dessert to me, and if this was a dessert, I'd jump right in immediately.

Now for the tasting in the evening. Given what was written on the bottle, I was quite looking forward to a whiff of the Tomatin. Oh!!! I wish I hadn't done that. Never believe what marketing says!!!!! Hubby's comment was that both are good, especially for the price point. The Tomatin was quite soft and sweet, exactly how they described it, and perhaps is more suitable for females obviously not me as you all now know. Out of the two, he preferred the Black Bottle, and it's more rounded and rich aroma.

After the little let down with the whiff of the Tomatin, and hubby's comment on the Black Bottle, I figured I'd be brave and try a drop of the Black Bottle. I held the glass towards my lip and slowly tilted it upwards so I would only get the one drop I wanted. That actually made things worse as the whisky was lodged on the side of the glass whilst the aroma gushed towards me like the smoke from a barbeque. It was not pleasant!!!!! 😣