Tamnavulin Port Cask
NAS Official Bottling | 40% ABV
Score: 5/10
Average. In a Good Way.
TL;DR
A good value stocking-filler for when the season comes around
Appropriate Purchases
“Where do you buy your whisky?”
I get asked that question a lot, a question that I’m sure we’ve all faced at some point. A terrible question, actually, because there’s no straight answer.
“It depends who the bottler is, whether I’ve spotted a deal somewhere, if I’m buying online or in person…” and so on - until there’s regret over asking in the first place, or even meeting me.
These days, it’s honestly easier to explain where I don’t buy my whisky - and top of that list - would be supermarkets.
The reason for that is not whisky snobbery, for I have spent ‘many a dime’ on those shelves in my days. However, I just got to a point where the idea of spending £35 on a non-age statement “Bourbon Cask” Jura, bottled at 40% abv, had lost its charm. It felt, to me, a little like buying flowers from a petrol station. You’re glad it’s there in a pinch, but you know you’re paying over the odds, and the romance won’t last long.
The last supermarket bottle I remember buying was the Deanston Kentucky Cask – a Morrisons’ exclusive, released during the pandemic era. As a fan of Deanston distillery, I approached it with cautious optimism. However, the optimistic side of me failed my palate on this one. It was an exceptionally poor bottle. I was burnt so badly by that whisky that I’ve been applying Savlon to my wallet periodically ever since.
Looking at my own personal purchasing behaviour – I tend to gravitate towards cask strength ex-bourbon releases. Sadly – these rarely sell cheaply and so, inevitably, the quantity of my purchases has declined. The side effect of this decline is that entire distilleries have begun to slip out of my orbit. I fail to keep tabs on what they’re doing - or whether their spirit has quietly improved while I haven’t been paying attention. One such distillery is Tamnavulin.
I know I’ve tried a few of their whiskies before. I definitely have.
But when pressed on which ones… I struggle. The memories are hazy, blurred somewhere between whisky club nights, festival drams and ‘generous’ pours at a friend’s house.
So, when this Tamnavulin Port Cask Finish ended up in my hands, I was coming to it fresh. No track record. No baggage. Just the vague recollection that, at some point in the past, I have tried something with their name on it and - at least partially - lived to tell the tale.
So, what was the inspiration for this purchase? Why did I step out of the norm to pick up this bottle? It was purchased in the name of family…
My in-laws live in central Europe, and we travel to see them regularly. Over time, we’ve fallen into a familiar pattern – as we all can do. My wife and I arrive after a few hours of travelling, dishevelled and tired, to a warm welcome of inhumane amounts of food and celebratory backslapping. Our first step, every time, is to reach into our suitcase and pull out a bottle of whisky for the family. Ritualistically – as if we’re summoning a magic elixir.
Step two: we drink that bottle dry on the first night.
The whole process has become comforting, reassuring, in a way that only a repeated, mildly ridiculous, family tradition can be. No surprises, no pressure, just the clink of whisky glasses. The starting pistol that marks the beginning of our visit.
We’ve been doing this for a few years now, which means there’s a track record of bottles that have carried this honour. However, if I’m honest, recently, it feels like more bottles have missed the mark than hit.
We’ve tried different directions – the rarest bottle we can find (one of only 43 bottles), our own favourite bottle of the moment, even the ‘smoothest’ bourbon cask expression we can find. We weren’t quite hitting the mark – and we knew it.
In hindsight, handing my sweet-toothed brother-in-law a 61% cask-strength Braeval and expecting him to hum with appreciation was potentially setting myself up for failure. However, on reflection, where we were going wrong was quite simple.
While buying for the family, we were really only considering our own palates. We assumed that if it worked for us, everyone else would enjoy it too. To put it another way, we were unintentionally trying to fast-forward their journey to our own stop on the grand old whisky railroad. It was like handing someone who’d just had their first Spanish lesson a copy of Don Quixote with excited glee.
So with the cask strength bourbon casks that I usually gravitate towards out of the window – we had to look for something else to fill the void. It was an interesting task, a new challenge and a lesson to be learned. Sometimes – you need to buy the bottle that the audience will drink, not the one you want to Instagram.
With this in mind - we were looking for something low ABV, easily accessible, cost effective and preferably finished in something sweet.
Enter the Tamnavulin ‘Port Cask’ release…
Review
Tamnavulin Port Cask Edition, NAS Official Bottling, ex-bourbon, tawny port cask finish, 40% ABV
£19 paid (£35 RRP) wide availability
A whisky chosen with intent. A supermarket pickup, yes, but a calculated one.
A conscious choice to slow down. To pick something approachable. The whisky equivalent of putting the training wheels back on. Honestly, sometimes, that’s no bad thing. Slowing down to fall back in love with the power of an easy sipper.
From first pour, with its deep mahogany colour in the glass, admittedly it radiated Christmas cake more than summer holiday. A whisky built more for, in theory, firesides and frosted windows.
Instead, we had central Europe, wooden fold-out garden chairs, a children’s paddling pool and blazing 40ºC heat. A less Scottish winter landscape, I could not imagine.
This was possibly not the environs Tamnavulin had in mind when they sent this bottle out into the world. But still, it was the bottle we had picked up — so we pressed on.
Score: 5/10
Average. In a Good Way.
TL;DR
A good value stocking-filler for when the season comes around
Nose
Leaping out of the glass is a burst of red berries – bright and unmistakable – a vibrant opening before the whisky settles into a broader fruit-led theme.
Cooked apple brings a warm-baked quality, whilst a touch of orange zest adds a citrus lift. Beneath these fresher notes lies a darker depth of dried fruits though – raisins and prunes – binding all these fruitier layers together.
Woven through all of this is a gentle spice with a nutty edge: cinnamon, walnuts, and almonds. Yet it is that berry brightness that lingers above all, blending with the warmer depths to give the whisky an unmistakably festive character.
Palate
The festive character carries through onto the palate, with cinnamon and clove joined again by the dried fruits, but this time, with a smooth, creamy layer of vanilla. It leans towards custard, even possibly edging into the richer sweetness of dulce de leche.
That sweetness, however, is the first to fade, giving way to the dried fruits and warming spices.
As the flavours settle, a gentle tannic quality emerges in the aftertaste. Far from unpleasant, it provides a little length and body to a whisky that, at 40% ABV, would otherwise possibly land a little thin on a palate accustomed to cask strength whisky.
The Dregs
There can be no doubt - there is something appealing about this whisky. There can also be no doubt – that it was not the best fit for the purposes we had used it for. However, on reflection, perhaps that is a little too much to ask of many whiskies…
To place this whisky in, what it feels is its natural habitat, a dram aimed at being enjoyed in the darker months of the year – I fully believe this whisky would comfortably serve a purpose. However, I won’t get carried away. It’s still 40% abv, chill filtered and rammed to the gills with E150. Probably.
At a very appealing price point I picked it up at (£19) – I would have no problem picking up another bottle of this in the future. It seems like a good bottle to have to hand for the traditional parade of visitors we all receive as the New Year rears its head once again; an easy dram to give to someone who just enjoys whisky as a ‘flourish’ to a special evening.
However, for me personally – it’s never going to set the heather alight.
As mentioned above, Tamnavulin are not a distillery I gravitate towards naturally – and honestly, I highly doubt that this experience will signify a change in that. However, it’s a decent first step.
If there’s an open bottle of Tamnavulin around, I’ll pour a glass. The Port Cask though – it’s not a whisky to chase, but a whisky that delivers enough charm for the right audience.
Score: 5/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. AM
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