It is time for another Fork in the Road post. Whiskies I could have picked in my initial whisky journey, but I skipped. It follows the theme I kicked off last week with the Longrow Peated review: peated whiskies outside of Islay. Today’s review looks at Tomatin’s Cù Bòcan 15, a rich, fully Oloroso Sherry-aged Highland malt. Not a cheap bottle; I paid just under €115. And one which may be gone from Tomatin’s lineup: it was only released in 2022 and 2023. But definitely worth seeking if you love the peated Sherry-cask style. It scored a very strong 8.5/10 for me.
Cù Bòcan 15 year old at a glance
| Score | 8.5/10 |
| TL;DR | A rich, mildly peated dram which makes me yearn for the old Highland peated malts. |
| Price Paid | €114.50 |
| Batch | 2022 |
| ABV | 50% |
| Natural Colour? | Yes |
| Non chill-filtered? | Yes |
| Casks Used | Fully matured in Oloroso Sherry casks |
Halloween, whisky and ghost dogs
Before I dive into the review of the Cù Bòcan 15, there is a touch of serendipitous timing deserving a callout. I am writing this post in the week before Halloween – a celebration with strong roots in Scotland and Ireland. And, in perfect Halloween theme, Cù Bòcan’s name is linked to a ghost story. The legend tells of a hellhound stalking the Highland moors around Tomatin village and of a distillery employee trying to touch the beast’s fur, only to have it dissolve into smoke. Oddly, it is not the only ghost dog story linked to peat among Highland distilleries.
Edradour, whose 12 YO Caledonia I recently reviewed, has its own ghost dog story for its peated Ballechin range, this time associated with the haunted Ballechin House on the old distillery’s estate. Both brands make ideal Halloween drams but apparently, at least for Cù Bòcan, not great marketing. According to a 2019 Whisky Lore podcast, the Cù Bòcan ghost story wasn’t exactly working, so the distillery shifted to its current “Unlock the Unusual” motto, focusing more on the unusual taste.
Occasional Highland peat
Yet the ghost dog dissolving in smoke over the Highland moors is a poetic metaphor for peat in Highland (and Speyside) whisky. Peat was traditionally the fuel source used to kiln malted barley. With the extension of railway lines to the north of Scotland, coal and coke became more accessible sources of fuel. Peat use started to shrink. Once most distilleries stopped malting their own barley, turning to commercial sources from the 1960s, peat use collapsed. It faded away in a puff of smoke, just like the Cù Bòcan ghost.
And yet several Highland and Speyside distilleries have now gone back to either a fully peated range, like Benromach, or peated releases as part of their core range or special editions; see Tomintoul, Glenturret or Balvenie. (Although Glenturret is phasing out its peated range: another Highland peater gone!) And Tomatin, clearly. While their core range remains anchored on non-peated spirit, like the Cask Strength I reviewed previously, launching the Cù Bòcan range in 2013 was a way to bring back peat, albeit using a very modern approach to cask ageing. A perfect match for this series of reviews around non-Islay peated malts.
The fork in the road: why did I skip this bottle?
When I wrote my original series on peated whiskies, I picked the Longrow Peated as my non-Islay peat in part because of the Springbank connection and hype, but also because of price. I had already heard great things about the Cù Bòcan 15 I am about to review, but back then the price was way beyond what I was willing to pay for a bottle. And then, at Glasgow Whisky Festival, just a few months later, I tried the Cù Bòcan 15, and I fell in love.
A side-by-side comparison with the Longrow is unfair. A rich aged sherried whisky, sold as a special release, vs an entry-level non-age-stated whisky would be comparing two different categories, even if they share the non-Islay peat theme. But life isn’t fair. So, while I won’t compare them side by side, I am pitting them under the same umbrella. Do with that what you will.
And now on to the…
Cù Bòcan 15 Review
Colour: Rich, dark, russet-toned amber. All natural.
Nose: Complex and rich. My instinctive association goes to dark woody and toasted notes with an underlying citrusy freshness. Once I spend more time with it, the notes start to reveal their identity. Dark chocolate-covered orange peel. Some cola. A little pipe tobacco. Treacle toffee. Even some beeswax-polished old wooden furniture. Underneath those darker notes, there is sweetness and freshness. Chestnut honey. Orange marmalade. Baked apples. The unmistakable Sherry-driven raisins and baking spices, nutmeg and allspice, are clearly recognisable. The peat is just a faint whiff of smoke in the background.
Taste & finish: The arrival on the palate reveals a medium texture and finally the peat becomes more recognisable. Together with an ashy and woody smoke, there are notes of treacle and spice, now also with some ginger and chilli. Some coffee and dark chocolate. Marmalade again. Then oak, even a touch of cedar-lined cigar humidor.
The finish is medium-long, drying. A hint of smoke lingers over treacly and woody notes. A touch thinner than I would have expected from nose and palate, while, at the same time, leaving me wanting another sip.
Score*: 8.5/10
Every reviewer has her or his own bias, and the Cù Bòcan 15 in today’s review definitely hits my personal one. Mildly peated but heavily sherried drams like this one or Ardnamurchan’s Sherry cask release are the sort of whiskies I will never say no to, especially when the weather turns cooler. Having said that, even if I account for this bias, the fair judgment is that the Cù Bòcan 15 is an intriguing and very well-made whisky. Complex, captivating – a real session dram.
That’s not to say that there aren’t points to nitpick. The texture is slightly thinner than I would like and than what the nose promised. And then there is the price. Do I regret spending almost €115 on this? I don’t, but the times were different a couple of years ago. Today, with a lot of price adjustments hitting the market, that price tag would be dear for a 15 year old. Yet, since Tomatin has not released a new edition since 2023, we cannot know how the price might have evolved. I just hope we’ll see a new edition soon.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s Cù Bòcan 15 review and stay tuned for next week, where the search for non-Islay peated whiskies will bring us to the Netherlands. To Zuidam Distillery for one of their Millstone bottlings. See you soon!
*Scores are based on the scoring scale used by Dramface, slightly modified to allow half-points
