Tamdhu 120th Anniversary @TweetTastings

As part of their 120th Anniversary celebrations and the Spirit Of Speyside festival Tamdhu held a tasting in the filling store of the distillery broadcast live on Facebook. Thanks to Steve @TweetTastings a number of us were also able to join it at home, following along online and sharing our thoughts on twitter.

As usual with these things a parcel arrived a few days before the tasting...

Inside has a smart branded glass and four drample bottles:

• Tamdhu 10yo (40%)
• Tamdhu Batch Strength 003 (58.3%)
• Tamdhu ? (62.1%)
• Tamdhu Single Cask (59.3%)

I've tried the 10yo many times, and last year's Batch Strength 002 but the last two were a bit of a mystery! There was quite a bit of speculation on twitter in the days leading up to the tasting with Tamdhu finally revealing them the day before.

Dram 3 was the first of a Spirit Of Speyside special series called Collectors Journey. This first dram is a NAS called The Tamdhu Dalbeallie Dram named after the local Victorian railway station which received Tamdhu’s precious sherry oak casks from Spain. Only 1,000 individually numbered bottles will be made available so we were all a little excited to get to try it!

Dram 4 was a special 15yo released to celebrate the distilleries 120th anniversary - it's called Single Cask Distillery Team Edition. Carefully selected by the 15-strong Tamdhu distillery team and bottled un-chill-filtered at cask strength from European oak first-fill sherry butt. This whisky was limited to 603 bottles - a really special treat!

The tasting was led by Sandy McIntyre (Distillery Manager) and Gordon Dundas (International Brand Ambassador) live from the distillery filling store and although we followed along the twitter tasters didn't quite manage to keep up!

Sandy and Gordon

Filling Store ready for the tasting

First up Sandy and Gordon gave us a little introduction to the distillery on facebook...

...and Steve did the same on twitter.

We were all ready to go!

Look at the colour on those last two drams!

Then it was on to the first dram of the afternoon the 10yo (40%)

My thoughts: lovely gold colour, gravity defying swirls, initial nose black cherries!
Nose: toffee, black cherries, honey, maybe some orchard fruit?
Palate: honey, drying oak, orchard fruits, a hint of smoke?
Finish: long and warming - honey rolling down your throat!  - Another hint of smoke - yummy
Overall: a nice mid-level sherry dram - I've had this a few times before and it never disappoints! There's just a hint of smoke and aroma and taste of black cherries which I consider the Tamdhu distillery signature.











Sandy & Gordon's thoughts:

Other tweeters thoughts:

Next up was the Batch Strength 003 (58.3%)

My thoughts: darker than the 10yo, more swirls without legs, initial nose, dark chocolate and orange syrup!
Nose: Lots of orange on the nose, honey, alcohol strength is showing itself! More of the dark cherries.
Palate: Loads of black fruit - cherries, blackberries, blackcurrants, lots of spice, some dark chocolate, and honey!
Finish: little bit of a burn, a little drying but lots of honey and blackberries. Loads of spice - yummy dram!
Overall: Maybe not quite as good as the BS2 was from last year.











Sandy & Gordon's thoughts:

Other tweeters thoughts:

Third dram of the evening was the Dalbeallie Dram (62.1%)

My thoughts: Lovely dark gold, very thin swirls on the glass, initial nose toffee and oak

Nose: Lots of oak and leather, sherry, more of the dark fruit ripe plums, blackberries, black cherries - with a little water the nose explodes with fruit - orange? and honey!
Palate: on the palate with a little water - this is more like it - lots of ginger spice - apple granny crumble, rich dark fruit - lovely. maybe bottle at too high a strength - deliciously better with water!
Overall: A little too long in the cask, small casks or too strong - not quite hitting the spot - a little water improved things immensely!











Sandy & Gordon's thoughts:

Other tweeters thoughts:

Then on to the final dram of the night Single Cask Distillery Team Edition (59.3%)

My thoughts: Lovely dark colour Single Cask Distillery Team Edition. Swirls brilliantly in the glass, no legs to see. Initial nose dark treacle toffee! 

Nose: Dark treacle toffee, old leather, damp newspapers, more of them dark cherries (distillery signature?) With a little water the nose develops more of a rich fruitcake note - yummy!
Palate: Chewy sherry wood, it's very thick, dark chocolate, more of those lovely black cherries, I'm sure there's some honey trying to get out of there somewhere too! Delicious dram! With water the palate delivers a dryness that wasn't there before - quite strange - still loads of black fruit - honey comes through more. there's a little hint of smoke on the finish too - extraordinary dram!
Overall: Interestingly I didn't realise that Tamdhu, like Benromach, have a little peated barley in all their whiskies - this one showed it more than the others! At £250 this is quite a stretch for most people but was easily the best dram of the night an absoloutely fantastic sherry bomb!







Sandy & Gordon's thoughts:

Other tweeters thoughts:

Overall an excellent afternoon, liked the twitter / live stream interaction and loved the drams!