Whisky Review: van Wees The Ultimate Tamdhu 9 Year 2006/2015

For some reason a lot of first-fill sherry casks from Tamdhu were sold to independent bottlers around the mid-2000s and are now coming to market as the fad for intensely sherried young malts has grown. Many of them have been bottled by van Wees for their Ultimate series at cask strength. While quite a number of them have been well-received, they're not universally loved.

This whisky was distilled on February 16th 2006, filled into a sherry butt, then bottled on March 20th 2015 at 64.5% without coloring or chill filtration.

van Wees The Ultimate Tamdhu 9 Year 2006/2015 Cask #914

Nose: big new make notes (which largely fade after the first sip), sweet raisins, massive sherry, gently floral, green malt, a little rubbery. After adding water it becomes much softer and the raisin notes become kind of dank, touches of salinity, vanilla, banana, and yogurt pop out, and it becomes somewhat savory with a bit of cold smoke.

Taste: extremely hot throughout, big new make notes wrapped around a bright sherry core, bittersweet all the way through, more raisin notes and some oak tannins at the back. After dilution the alcohol heat largely disappears, revealing soft sherry, liquid raisins, and very little new make, with a berry/wine sour edge, and something vegetal near the back.

Finish: big alcohol heat, fudgy raisins, sour malt

In all honesty, I don't think this should have been bottled at full strength. While there's a fetish within the whisky community for higher and higher proof whiskies (see: George T. Stagg), in this case it's really just too much. Contrary to my usual practice with samples, I added a fairly healthy slug of water when diluting this whisky because it felt like a few drops just weren't going to do the trick. That much dilution was necessary to put the new make notes into balance and transform it into a competent malt, rather than a underdone mess.

Whisky Review: Signatory Cask Strength Tamdhu 8 Year 2005/2013

Since its revival by Ian Macleod, Tamdhu has focused largely on its sherry cask matured whisky, both in the watered down 10 Year and the full proof Cask Strength. I have generally felt like the prices on these whiskies were too dear for their contents, but a significant number of Tamdhu sherry butts have made their way into the hands of independent bottlers, offering us another way to experience it.

This whisky was distilled on January 27th 2005, filled into a fresh sherry butt, then bottled in an outturn of 615 on September 22nd 2013 at 60.6% without coloring or chill filtration.

I proofed this whisky down to a number of different strengths to see how it would change.

Signatory Cask Strength Tamdhu 8 Year 2005/2013 Cask #346

Diluted to 45%

Nose: balanced grain and sherry influence, a little thin, creamy, yeasty savoriness, corn, gentle floral notes in the background, a touch of chocolate and roasted malt

Taste: mild sherry and grain sweetness up front, sherry fades towards the back as a rising tide of corn plus oak, cacao, and grain bitterness overwhelms everything else

Finish: grainy bitterness, oak tannins, sherry in the background, yeast extract

The youth of this whisky really shows up when it's reduced to 45%. The complexity is almost completely lost, especially on the palate. Young grain and sherry are all that's left, while the yeasty notes remind me more of a bourbon, which mesh with the youthful grain character.

Diluted to 50%

Nose: sweet sherry, raisins, savory undercurrent, malt in the background, a little yogurt

Taste: concentrated sherry with diminishing sweetness all the way through, a hint of sulfur up front, underlying malt, slightly peppery around the middle, very little oak, sherry turns bittersweet at the back

Finish: thin and short, sherry and malt

This is, if anything, even more simple than at 45%, with the sherry overwhelming almost everything else. The intensity is noticeably amped up, though the alcohol is not particularly hot at this point. It does become a little bit more in balance with time, but the malt is never particularly assertive.

Diluted to 55%

Nose: sherry is still dominant but becomes more complex, aromatic, and nuanced, roasted malt, a bit of char, stronger yogurt notes, coastal, creamy vanilla, European oak in the background, lime, orange peel, banana

Taste: sherry throughout beginning sweetly then fading towards bittersweet, citrus and fruit esters in the middle, vanilla and malt near the back

Finish: malt, sherry residue, mild oak

While very similar in structure to the whisky at 50%, the sherry takes on a more complex character so the overall experience is less flat. The nose especially opens up with the unexpected yogurt and coastal character becoming more obvious. The finish also becomes much longer, though without much complexity. While the alcohol burn starts to become noticeable, it is much less than would be expected at 55%.

Full strength 60.6%

Nose: thick sherry, juicy raisins, cinnamon, fresh yogurt, light oak and floral notes, passion fruit, orange, pineapple, salt/coastal, a little savory. After adding a few drops of water the sherry becomes less sweet and more savory (roasted peanuts?), the tropical fruit notes are amplified, and berries come out.

Taste: heavy sherry up front, sweet initially but quickly balanced by oak tannins, threads of citrus peel weave through it all, a bump of vanilla in the middle, lightly herbal at the back. After dilution the heat settles down a lot, the sherry becomes more savory and integrates with the oak, while the citrus mostly disappears.

Finish: dry sherry residue, distant malt, moderate oak

While a lot of ink has been spilled bemoaning the growing presence of younger, immature malts coming onto the market, there are cases where the marketing hype about bottling whisky when it's done rather than when it hits an arbitrary number is exactly right. However, I'm more inclined to buy that line when it's a full strength single cask in front of me than a watered down, large batch expression.

I'm normally rather sensitive to new make character in malt whisky, so the almost complete lack of it here is really striking. It's possible that this cask would have gotten even better with time, but it's also possible that the sherry would have become too strong and wiped out any residual spirit character. I'm pretty OK with it being bottled when it was.

Whisky Review: Duncan Taylor Tamdhu 34 Year 1969/2004

Until fairly recently Tamdhu was an almost forgotten distillery, anonymously churning out millions of liters of spirt every year for blenders. Its briefly closure by Edrington in 2009 saw it nearly disappear entirely, until the independent bottler Ian MacLeod (which also owns Glengoyne) purchased and restarted the distillery.

With the exception of two 25 Year releases during the early-2000s, very little official bottlings have been very old, leaving that field almost entirely to independent bottlers. Duncan Taylor has released a number of 30-40-odd year old single casks from the late-60s and early-70s that were all at or just barely above 40% ABV, suggesting that they had lost quite a bit to evaporation over the years. This particular cask was distilled during a brief era during which the distillery was still producing its own malt, but through Saladin boxes rather than floor maltings, and right before a major expansion of the distillery in the early-70s.

With all that said, my hopes were not too high after reading a fairly middling review from the folks at LAWS and a number of other reviews of sister casks that rated them as decent but uninspiring.

This whisky was distilled in November 1969, filled into what was almost certainly a refill ex-bourbon hogshead, then bottled in January 2004 with an outturn of 193 at 40.2% without coloring or chill filtration.

Duncan Taylor Tamdhu 34 Year 1969/2004 Cask #7313

Nose: honied oak, cardboard, clean malt, a grassy edge, gentle floral perfume, heather/violet. After adding a few drops of water the malt moves forward and turns into oatmeal, while a lot of citrus peel comes out.

Taste: strong but somewhat hollow sweetness up front, old oak and grapefruit pith begin in the middle and grow towards the back, a vague muddle of vanilla, dried fruit, berry, mango, and floral notes in the middle, fading into more tannic oak and some sweeter lime peel. After dilution the sweetness becomes more expansive but also more hollow, the middle loses a lot of its character, but the oak has more punch and fizz at the back.

Finish: lingering old oak, bittersweet, lime, light tannic prickles, floral, dried fruit

This is a whisky that was clearly bottled to keep it from going understrength, not because it was genuinely at its peak. This hits a lot of the classic notes of long aged Speysiders from Nth-refill casks. I suspect this would have been a lot better if it hadn't lost so much strength, as it feels like there is good character that has simply fallen limp. In a lot of ways it feels like one of the current old blends made up of slightly tired casks that sell more on the strength of their statistics than inherent character. On the upside, a little bit of sherried whisky tipped in can really pep it up, so it's not unsalvageable.

While not the most thrilling or cheapest whisky among my birthday stash, I'm still glad that I purchased this one. It's both a gentle whisky that has been pleasant to drink and a solid reminder that age doesn't necessarily make for a good or valuable whisky.

Experimental Whisky: North British/Arran/Tamdhu/Hazelburn/Bunnahabhain Blend

One of the main goals of in making blends is creating balance - carefully adding more flavorful malts to grain whisky. When that comes to peat and sherry, a little goes a long way. So this was my attempt to add a bit of everything, hopefully keeping any one element from dominating the others, at a respectable but not overwhelming strength of 46%.

•15 mL Signatory North British 16 Year CS
•5 mL Arran Bourbon Single Cask
•2 mL Signatory Tamdhu 8 Year CS
•1 mL Hazelburn 8 Year CS
•1 mL Chieftain’s peated Bunnahabhain 16 Year CS for K&L
•5 mL H2O

North British/Arran/Tamdhu/Hazelburn/Bunnahabhain Blend

Nose: grain with a mossy peat edge, a whiff of sherry and fresh soil, a little green, cured meat, gentle oak, seashore, vanilla. After adding a few drops of water, there is more grain and peat, plus something nutty emerges.

Taste: sweet grain and malt with bourbon cask influence up front, vanilla/floral/vegetal in the middle, sliding through mild sherry influence at the back. After dilution, it becomes more integrated - the sherry shifts forward and the peat arrives earlier.

Finish: grain, peat, oak

This blend hews most closely to the recipe set out by Alfred Barnard than any other I've made, though it is even more grain-heavy, making it more akin to modern commercial blends. The balance of grain whisky, bourbon cask malt, sherried malt, and peated malt is just right. Every element is present, but none dominates, providing a pleasant but relatively unchallenging experience. The flavor density is solid given the final proof, but it reads as fairly smooth. This is what I want blends like Johnnie Walker to be, but they never quite seem to get there. Nice to know that I can do for self.

Experimental Whisky: Hazelburn/Tamdhu/Laphroaig Blended Malt

This blended whisky came about as I was tossing things together. Hazelburn 8 Year Cask Strength and Signatory Tamdhu 8 Year Cask Strength have both been staples of my blending projects, so I wanted to try them together. I eventually decided that the mix needed a bit more peat, so I added a drop of Laphroaig 10 Year Cask Strength. That really seemed to pull it together, especially after adding a bit of water, so I decided to make a more formal blend at roughly 50% ABV.

•12 mL Hazelburn 8 Year Cask Strength
•12 mL Signatory Tamdhu 8 Year Cask Strength
•1.5 mL Laphroaig 10 Year Cask Strength
•4.5 mL water

Hazelburn/Tamdhu/Laphroaig Blend

Nose: very green, mossy peat, seaweed, salty sea air, sweet malt, porridge, sherry, raisins, polished wood. After adding a few drops of water, some nice cured ham notes come out, the sherry takes on more berry character, the oak gets spicier, and the new make character is somewhat suppressed, coming out as pine instead,

Taste: fresh malt with mild sherry sweetness up front, quickly picking up mossy peat, fresh green vegetables, with polished oak and a Campbeltown twist near the back. After dilution, the oak becomes more prominent, integrating with the sherry and spreading across the palate, with the Campbeltown and Islay peat just riding above it.

Finish: Campbeltown and Islay character - both peat and malt, sea air, well-integrated oak

This feels like almost, but not quite, like a success. The Campbeltown character of the Hazelburn and the Islay character of the Laphroaig are a good balance for the cleaner Speyside character of the sherried Tamdhu. However I think the Hazelburn is just a bit too underdone to fit with the other two components, so it didn't come together quite like I would have hoped. I think what I'd like to do is remake this after I open up a bottle of Springbank 10 Year/100-proof, which should be similar but fit the profile better. This is a learning process.

Experimental Whisky: Tamdhu 8 CS/Hazelburn 8 CS/Arran Bourbon Single Cask/North British 16 Year

After writing my post about blending whisky, I decided to try making a blend with a bit more precision.

This is a roughly even (a milliliter or so off in some cases) split between an Arran Bourbon Single Cask, Signatory Cask Strength Tamdhu 8 Year, Hazelburn 8 Year Cask Strength, and Signatory North British 16 Year for Binny's. All said and done should clock in around 58% and all of the component whiskies were uncolored and un-chill filtered.

Blended Whisky #1

Nose: a thick layer of sherry on top, sweet raisins, fresh malt core, a touch of grain, light vanilla, caramel/brown sugar, something a meaty/savory, a bit of Campbeltown brine, sawdust. After adding a splash of water, the sherry is toned down significantly, letting the dusty grain, brine, and meaty notes shine.

Taste: fruity/dank sherry rides on top of everything, green/lightly peaty/earthy/dirty with dried orange peel and a heavy seasoning of black pepper around the middle, slides into malt/grain, mild oak, and extra pepper. After dilution, the sherry becomes a lighter bottom note rather than a top note, with malt and grain dominating, while the oak almost disappears and the earthy peat becomes stronger at the back.

Finish: grainy bitterness, moderate oak, sherry dregs, hints of dirty peat

This fudges Alfred Barnard's classic recipe, but it's close. One Speysider, an Island distillery that hews fairly close to Speyside/Highland, a Campbeltown, and a well-aged grain. Something peated from Islay definitely would have given this more punch, though I was pleasantly surprised by how much of that the Hazelburn brought to the mix. Also surprising was how strongly the sherry from the Tamdhu came through over the other three bourbon cask whiskies. Trying the Tamdhu by itself I found it to not be very intensely sherried, but mixing it with the other three seems to bring that element to the fore. Goes to show that how a malt whisky behaves on its own is not necessarily indicative of how it will behave as part of a blend.

Whisky Review: Gordon & MacPhail Collection Tamdhu 8 Year

Gordon & Macphail bottle a number of young single malts under their Collection moniker. I've previously tried the Highland Park, which made me interested to try some of the others. I got a chance the last time I swung by the Highland Stillhouse for a drink.

G&M purchases new make spirit directly from the distillery. This version was made from whisky aged exclusively in refill sherry casks for at least 8 years, then bottled at 43%. No word on chill filtration or color, so I'm going to guess that both are in use here. This expression has been reformulated recently and is now a mix of refill bourbon and sherry casks.

G&M Collection Tamdhu 8 Year

Nose: burnt sugar and orange peel, sherry, malty, vanilla, light apple notes. After adding a few drops of water, the burnt sugar becomes maple syrup, the sherry tucks inside, and it becomes grainier and more vegetal.

Taste: sweet & sour throughout, lots of creamy malt mixed with sherry and wood at the back, bourbon barrel fruit. After dilution, there is more malt sweetness, the sourness tones down, it is more grain-focused with less sherry and oak, it feels younger, and some citrus notes show up.

Finish: kind of green, malt, mild oak, sherry residue

This is a malt with no pretensions of being anything other than what it is: a moderately sherried, young Speysider at a price that positions it to compete with blends. There's little in the way of complexity and its youth still shows, but there's nothing off-putting about it either. If you're a blend drinker looking to move into single malts or a single malt drinker looking for something that isn't such a hit to the wallet, I would highly recommend grabbing a bottle.