Tullibardine The Murray - Triple Port

We all know how I love Port cask finished whisky (as opposed to full port cask matured whisky) and what better than a triple port cask matured whisky?

Let's try @Tullidistillery's latest in The Marquess Collection.

I've tried and written about the Tullibardine core range here.

Tullibardine launched The Marquess Collection in 2016, is a nod to famous historical figures who bore the Marquess of Tullibardine title in Scotland, and the rich history of the Tullibardine region. The Murray is inspired by the 2nd Marquess of Tullibardine, Sir William Murray, who fought for the Jacobites at the Battle of Sheriffmuir in November 1715 on the Ochil Hills near the distillery.

A quick recap on Port.

Port is the world’s most popular fortified wine, only produced in the Douro Valley around the city of Porto on the west coast of Portugal. Red grapes are used to make Tawny or Ruby Port and White grapes to make White Port. The grape juice is fermented the fortified to around 7%, a little brandy is added to stop the fermentation process retaining the fruit flavours and increasing the sugar content. Ruby port is aged for up to 18 months in either oak casks or stainless steel vats. White Port is aged for up to 10 years in oak casks, Tawny port is aged for much longer in oak casks. Colheita port is a port using grapes from a single harvest, it could be White, Ruby or Tawny.

Distillery Notes:

The twelfth limited edition in the Tullibardine Marquess Collection marries together three types of Port cask: White Port, Tawny Port and Ruby Port.

The result is a delicately blushed peach spirit which imbues a cacophony of sweet, fruity and warming aromas and flavours.

Distilled in 2008 and bottled in 2022, natural colour, 46% ABV chill filtered. This unique expression is limited to just 18,278 bottles globally.

Tasting Notes:

The nose delivers tart raspberries and succulent black fruits, perfectly balanced with a subtle hint of baked apple and crème caramel from the White Port. The Tawny Port, aged in oak barrels bring layers of spiced oak, cloves and cinnamon, which creates a spicy and warming finish.

My thoughts:

Appearance: dark gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thick line, take a little time to bead up and eventually fall as slow thin oily legs.

Nose: a hint of smoke or maybe dunnage funk, some red berries, black cherries and a suggestion of spice to come. Huge berry notes as you'd expect from a Port cask matured dram: strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants, blackberries; there's black cherries here too. There's an interesting funk note here too - dunnage funk, dark chocolate or smoke, I'm not quite sure. A little orchard fruit and some penny toffee hints.

Palate: sweet arrival, oily but a little thin - I really don't get chill-filtering at 46% ABV. The toffee from the the nose is back, chewy and sticky. There's also some of the orchard fruit and berry notes from the nose but they're a little subdued. What really makes it's presence felt is the spice - ginger, cinnamon and pepper. After a few sips the dram starts to get very dry, making you try more!

Finish: lingering dry spice, toffee sweetness and a little berry fruit.

Overall: a lovely dram for a cold winter's evening in front of a fire with a mince pie, and that's exactly what I did over Christmas managing to polish off half of this bottle in a couple of weeks, it's 'only' 46% so a very easy drinker. 

The question of chill filtering has come up a few times on social media as previous Murray releases simply said they weren't, this one doesn't say anything. I reached out to the distillery and they said it was. A little strange for 46% I thought, but in a recent chat with Bowmore's Ron Welsh he revealed that they would only not chill filter at 48% or above, a lot of Laphroaig bottlings are at 48% too - times are a changing!

Triple Port Cask is interesting - I'm not sure of any other whisky which has done this - I'm had plenty of Tawny Port whiskies, a couple of Ruby Port ones and even a German whisky which used both. I think I've only had one White Port cask matured whisky but a combination of all 3 really seems to work!

Many thanks to @Tullidistillery for the bottle but this didn't sway my opinion.