Saturday afternoon with Tamdhu @TweetTastings

You never know what is going to turn up when you sign up and get accepted for one of @TheWhiskyWire's @TweetTasting and this one was no different. This one took a while to get my hands on - the DHL man tried to deliver it twice when I was away on holiday, then took it back to the depot - I was really concerned that it wasn't going to get delivered in time!

When it did arrive I opened a beautiful large box from @TamdhuWhisky with a hand written welcome letter, a booklet about the history of the distillery and tasting notes for two of the 4 bottles. Underneath was a beautiful glass and four small bottles.

Box opening!

The drams included : New Make Spirit, 10yo, 10yo Limited Edition and Batch Strength.

The drams

This tasting was a little different for a number of reasons:

1. It look place on a Saturday evening - usually they take place on a Wednesday night.
2. It was a joint twitter and distillery tasting as it coincided with the Spirit of Speyside festival.
3. As they were 50cl bottles I'd invited a mate round to help me sample them!

Personally I thought the evening went a little quickly - there wasn't a lot of time for the usual twitter discussion - I'm guessing that's because the distillery tasters had a schedule to meet!

My thoughts:

Distillery : Tamdhu

Whisky : New Make Spirit

Characteristics : 50ml, 69.7% ABV.

Colour : Transparent

Nose : Fresh baked bread with a little sweetness

Palate : Sweetness, lip numbing, like schnapps but at all rough like I expected!

Finish : None to speak of - must have been the alcohol

Overall : This is the first time I'd tried New Make Spirit from any distillery and was apprehensive when I saw the strength thinking it was be very rough and burning - it wasn't like that at all. Initially I'd only poured a small amount into my glass to try and soon topped it up! It was quite drinkable as long as you only took small sips.

Distillery : Tamdhu
Whisky : 10yo
Characteristics : 700ml 40% ABV
Price : £30
Colour : Light Gold
Nose : Sherry and almonds with a slight rough edge - developed over time into buttery toffee
Palate : Creamy smooth, banoffee pie
Finish : Medium - spicy - aniseed?
Overall : A lovely beginners Speyside dram - just the right about of sherry which if left in the glass to develop turns into toffee - delicious!
Link : 10yo

Distillery : Tamdhu
Whisky : 10yo Limited Edition (1000 bottles)
Characteristics : 700ml 46% ABV
Price : £120
Colour : Dark Gold
Nose : Sherry with a slight rough edge - developed over time into buttery toffee - similar to 10yo
Palate : Sherry, toffee - very smooth and drying with a spicy tingle of cloves
Finish : A long spicy clove finish
Overall : Another lovely dram, this time the sherry was a little more pronounced on the nose and palate.
Link : 10yo Ltd Edn

Distillery : Tamdhu
Whisky : Batch Strength No 002
Characteristics : 700ml 58.5% ABV
Price : £60
Colour : Dark Gold
Nose : Toffee, Vanilla, Citrus - maybe orange - no rough edge like the previous two
Palate : Toffee, orange - drying in the mouth, again with spicy cloves or cinnamon on the tongue
Finish : Long orange oil finish
Overall : For all it's strength - this one was my favourite on the night - strong yes - but a lovely sipping whisky, the addition of a little water added to the vanilla on the nose and orange on the palate and finish.
Link : Batch Strength

Many thanks to Steve for organising and @TamdhuWhisky for the samples and my fellow tasters for a really enjoyable evening!