Tomintoul Merlot Cask Finish (700 ml)

Founded as blending stock for Whyte & Mackay and largely invisible as a single malt for 35 years, Tomintoul only began expressing its full range of cask creativity after Angus Dundee acquired the distillery in 2000 — the Merlot Cask Finish is a direct product of that liberated ambition. The distillery sits at approximately 345 m altitude near Ballindalloch in the Cairngorms National Park, drawing process water from the Ballantruan Spring in the Cromdale Hills — exceptionally soft and pure, a structural reason the new make spirit runs light and clean at ~69% ABV collection strength. That delicate cereal-and-orchard-fruit base is built on long fermentation (54–60 hours) in stainless-steel washbacks and high-reflux distillation through steam-heated stills, then laid down in American white oak ex-Bourbon casks for primary maturation before transfer into Merlot wine casks for finishing. The Merlot finish is the transgression: where Tomintoul's core range stays resolutely pale and malty, the red-wine wood drives dark berry character and a soft tannic grip onto the distillery's otherwise feather-light Speyside frame. As a non-vintage expression, it draws from Tomintoul's four on-site warehouses holding up to 75,000 casks, allowing the blending team to select parcels where the Merlot influence integrates rather than overwhelms the house's signature gentleness.