After tasting more than 30 single malts, it's increasingly less likely I will simply happen upon an untried whisky at Richmond restaurants, bars, friend's houses, etc. With the notable exception of the Carytown location, even the ABC stores are slim pickings at this point. Looks like I'm going to have to be more pro-active from now on.
With this in mind, I could not pass up a return visit to McCormack's Whisky Grill on Robinson Street. I've already done my spiel on McCormack's in the Springbank 10 review, so I needn't be redundant praising its whisk(e)y selection. To paraphrase El Guapo from Three Amigos, I would say they have a plethora.
Perusing the list, I decided it had been a while since I had tried a new Islay or Island malt. Of the first two I selected, Kilchoman was only available at the other larger location, McCormack's Big Whisky Grill (at Regency Square); and Scapa, the bartender literally could not find amongst all the other whisky bottles. Plethora, indeed.
It was the same bartender from my first visit, to whom I described what I was looking for. Then in one fluid motion, without looking no less, he pulled a bottle of Tobermory 10 off the crowded shelf without clinking its neighbors, then set it down, label facing me, perfectly centered. It was a weird little moment of barstool zen, and for some reason it made my otherwise craptastic day to that point.
Mull itself is a weird place to start with: prehistoric stone circles, haunted caves, legendary witches, mysterious shipwrecks, pretty much any Scooby Doo episode you can think of. So by contrast, the inner workings of the Tobermory Distillery may be not be so weird, but rather simply unorthodox.
Besides producing single malts under two different names, the new make of both Tobermory and Ledaig is shipped to the Highland Deanston Distillery for casking, then subsequently shipped again to Islay for aging at the Bunnahabhain facility. Throw in the fact that Tobermory's barley is also malted offsite, and it's starting to sound like 'single malt by committee'. Perfectly legal as it turns out. Who knew?
According to the 2009 Scotch Whisky Regulations, as long as the spirit is "produced from only malted barley and water at a single distillery by batch distillation in pot stills", it can be labeled 'single malt scotch whisky'. Casking and aging can take place elsewhere, as long as that facility is registered for such purpose under Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (aka HMRC), and that the unfinished spirit never leaves Scotland until properly aged and bottled.
It's this last part that disqualifies the Virginia Distillery Company's single malt Highland whisky from being called scotch, even though all of its production takes place in Scotland up until cask aging in Nelson County, VA. Loch Lomond Distillery, producing 12 million L alcohol/year (more than any other in Scotland), is disqualified for a similarly nitpicky reason. Rather than "batch distillation in pot stills", they utilize a Coffey still which allows for continuous distillation rather than distinct batches. You gotta have rules I suppose, that's what separates us from the Tarheels.
Bottoms up already, dammit...
Gingerbread cookies was my first impression on the nose. Lightly salty with a sprinkle of apple pie spices. No smoke, slightly oaky, fresh cut grass. Creamy texture swirling around the glass. Very light in color, lemon yellow. Overall quite smooth, light, and clean aromas, especially for a 46% ABV malt.
I got some fruit in the tasting, a canned pear sticky sweetness. Cinnamon graham crackers and honey. Buttery smooth. There's a note towards the end I can't quite decide between anise and allspice. Closer to grassy than malty, perhaps due to its relative youth. Simultaneously deep and delicate in flavor, which I can't really explain. Bourbon casked, no sherry influence. No chill-filtering, always a bonus.
The saltiness coated my palate at the finish. Left with an oaky note, and a lingering roasted nut flavor I hadn't noticed before. No smoke, bitterness, nor alcohol sting in the finish, though shorter than I expected. Easy drinking. Very well balanced, however not terribly complex. Smooth as a dolphin. This definitely skews towards afternoon scotch (looking at you, golfers), the whisky equivalent of 'session beer'. Now I suppose I'll have to try the peated Ledaig, the Almond Joy to Tobermory's Mounds. You're humming the jingle now, I can hear you.
Overall Grade: 85/100, solid B
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