Three takes on Tamdhu | Various ABV
Has Tamdhu been hiding in oloroso for a century?
A bourbon cask matured single malt Scotch is, in my opinion, often the most perfect vehicle to enjoy a dram – a pure fruit bomb.
There are various distilleries for which you would only think about sherry cask matured whiskies: GlenAllachie, Glenfarclas, Dalmore, Macallan, and funnily enough, Tamdhu. There is always that suspicion about sherry-maturation-only distilleries: is the new make poor? Does it need something to disguise it? Alter it? Boost it?
Sherry gets accused of a lot, and perhaps for good reason. Put enough oloroso around a spirit and nobody will ever know what it tasted like. Tales abound of litres of sherry still sloshing around casks when they arrive from Spain for filling, liquid intended to stop the cask drying out which should be disgorged before filling, but the tall tales persist that some like to keep those imported liquids and fill into them.
History doesn’t help the case of sherry-maturation-only distilleries, and the suspicion that something is being hidden. The blenders of the nineteenth century used sherry wood for exactly that, to cover bland spirit and soften the roughness of young whisky. I’m not implying in any way that Tamdhu - or anyone else - is into this sort of practice, only that it is anecdotally thought to happen.
Of course, we can also flip this suspicion: are distilleries missing a trick by continuing to fill everything into sherry casks when the spirit coming off their stills can hold its own and would be adored from a bourbon cask?
Tamdhu revel in the fact that they only do sherry cask maturation. They only do oloroso cask maturation in fact. Every single cask, every single bottling, all the marketing copy seems to come back to Jerez and oloroso casks. The website says all of it is matured in oloroso casks and in fact it goes so much further by suggesting that they started off using sherry casks right back when the distillery started in 1898.
I’ve had a bit of Tamdhu early in my whisky voyage, but a brand built on one cask type does leave the predictable question of what’s actually underneath. What is the spirit like and does it need that oloroso cask influence to hold its own?
Nobody really cared about this for a long time of course. Tamdhu was simply a blender’s distillery, built at Knockando in 1897 and simply disappearing into blends like Famous Grouse and Cutty Sark for the next century. Edrington owned it but, by 2010, they didn’t want it. So it was mothballed around then until Ian Macleod bought it in 2011.
This all means that we have no idea what officially bottled Tamdhu spirit is like without its Spanish coat on. I have written about Tamdhu before; it was the third review that I ever had published on Dramface and I have owned four official bottlings in total. All oloroso matured, all variations on the standard Tamdhu modus operandi.
So, the interesting angle on this Official vs Indy isn’t one that was planned at all. The test is three spirits all distilled under the current owners; the same distillery’s spirit dressed three different ways.
There is of course a massive handicap involved in this comparison, and it’s not the bourbon versus oloroso cask scenario. Nor is it ten years against twelve. It’s 66.3% ABV against 43%; there’s a degree to which that 20% plus difference on the spirits just means you need to think if they are comparable.
Anyway, let’s get stuck into some Tamdhu.
Review 1/3
Tamdhu 12yo, matured in sherry oak, official bottling 43% ABV
£35 paid and wide availability
First, the official 12-year-old. It’s the entry point to Tamdhu, matured in a mix of first-fill and refill oloroso casks, American and European oak, and bottled at 43%. That’s the house style, if a weak version of it.
I have owned this one since I was in my scattergun phase of whisky. It seemed a bargain at £35 at that point but it was nothing to write home about and so it languished on the shelves – the back left of the top shelf to be precise.
The bottle says no colouring, but Tamdhu admits to its chill filtering. At least the colour is cask-driven, not caramel, and the Tamdhu bottles are very stylish.
Score: 4/10
Some promise.
TL;DR
Good value. Just not memorable enough
Nose
It is a bright nose with sherry notes, but not overpowering - they are delicate. Gentle orange notes, apple, quince, cinnamon and vanilla with sweet cake dough, maybe mildly sulphurous. Overall a very pleasant nose.
Palate
No real strong flavours: orange, raisins, honey, some caramel and vanilla along with milk chocolate.
The mouthfeel is pleasant, creamy and relatively thick – makes you interested to know what the mouthfeel would be without the chill filtration.
The finish is medium, becomes very slightly drying, but introduces and stays spicy right to the end.
There is no sign of the lightly peated spirit Tamdhu say is in it, to me anyway. There isn’t really much complexity to it and I have very quickly run out of flavours to find.
The Dregs
It doesn’t seem as spicy as you would want from first-fill oloroso maturation but perhaps there aren’t too many of those casks involved.
Going back to this after a couple of years untouched, I will admit a degree of automatic prejudice. An assumption that at 43% this would have had the life filtered and diluted out of it. The nose was good and actually, what followed through on the palate, was pretty acceptable, decent and good. The ABV could benefit from a boost, but it’s decent for its stats. It’s not a memorable dram; if you aren’t writing notes as you swallow it, then it will be all too forgettable.
At £35 this is a value bottle of malt whisky. Its nose and palate stand up to scrutiny. It’s not harsh in any way, but mildly spicy and I think would go down well with someone new on their whisky journey. I think it’s fair to say it does the job it has been designed for very well. If someone handed one to me while visiting friends, I would say it was pretty acceptable.
Score: 4/10
Review 2/3
Tamdhu 12yo, Cadenhead’s Original Collection, matured in refill oloroso hogsheads, 46% ABV
£55 paid and still some availability
Second, Cadenhead’s. Scotland’s oldest independent bottler, based in Campbeltown and owned by J&A Mitchell. This one’s from their Original Collection, also 12 years old, distilled in 2013 and bottled from refill oloroso hogsheads. So it’s the same age, same sherry, but without the first-fill casks to impart the heavy sherry influence.
The recent Cadenhead’s Authentic Collection releases have been consistently good, and very well priced right across the range. So this didn’t feel like a gamble to buy, though I think I probably did buy it mainly because I already had the other two in this line up and I thought a third perspective would be good.
Score: 7/10
Very good indeed.
TL;DR
Worth picking up, performs better than spec suggests
Nose
Immediate nosing screams of a bourbon cask: apples, New York vanilla cheesecake, a hint of burnt orange rind, but little or no sign of sherry on the nose.
Palate
If I got this to taste blind, I really think I would struggle to identify this as something that’s sherry cask matured. In fact, I think the only clue I can find is a bit of spiciness at the end of the dram that would make you think sherry. It identifies as a fruit bomb in my opinion.
Orange and mandarin are leading the way, apples, peaches, whipped cream, white chocolate, vanilla custard and marzipan. Flavours are all tied in nicely together.
The mouthfeel is creamy, verging on thick - nice and oily. Finish is medium/long developing into a low level of peppery, nutmeg spice – low level warming through to the end.
It tastes well above the 46% ABV it actually is.
The Dregs
I’m pretty sure that this one will get overlooked by your average Cadenhead’s buyer on the basis it is Tamdhu. I haven’t run a poll but I don’t think many experienced whisky buyers are regularly returning to see what Tamdhu has to offer. This is a great drinking, interesting dram which is easy and enjoyable with a sensible ABV that tastes stronger.
Score: 7/10
Review 3/3
Tamdhu 10yo, Woodrow’s of Edinburgh Warehouse Reserve, matured in a first-fill bourbon barrel, 66.3% ABV
£88 paid and maybe some availability
Third, the feisty one. Woodrow’s of Edinburgh, and their Warehouse Reserve range: single casks at full strength. This Tamdhu went into a first-fill bourbon barrel in November 2015 and came out in July this year at a frankly daft 66.3%, 226 bottles in all from it. No sherry at any point. The antithesis of officially bottled Tamdhu.
The first I heard of this bottle was a WhatsApp message from another Dramface writer Archie, who knew how much I enjoyed the high ABV Woodrow’s Glentauchers. That conflation of a high cask strength and the chance to try bourbon cask matured Tamdhu seemed slightly unmissable. This one should give a bit of insight into what comes from Tamdhu, rather than the cask
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
The exact polar opposite of diluted-to-death
Nose
It is a fruit bomb on the nose. Apple, pineapple, peach, some ripe banana, honeydew melon, vanilla and Juicy Fruit chewing gum. It does smell of a high ABV, if that’s possible.
Palate
Immediately hot and tastes like the 66% ABV that it is. The fruit hits you - tangy apple, pears, lemon citrus, but nothing sweet at the front like there was on the nose.
Once the fruit goes, there is some alcohol burn on the first sip, which I thought was immense. That goes quickly though.
The mouthfeel is creamy, thick and oily.
Its legs are long and it stays hot in the mouth for a long time. Slightly spicy and white peppered.
With a generous number of water drops, it tames down significantly and starts to introduce elements of vanilla and sweetness, becoming extra creamy on the texture.
The Dregs
If there is an opposite to diluted-to-death, then it’s possibly this whisky. While there’s no suggestion it’s been interfered with, it just feels like it has been tuned to absolute peak performance (strength). Perhaps “it’s been amped up to live its best life”?
It’s a beast; there is no other way I can do it justice. Beware though, for the ABV this is moreish. Woodrows continue to knock it out of the park at the minute, there is a lot of deserved love for their releases.
Score: 8/10
The Final Dregs
The big takeaway for me on this is that Tamdhu have no need to hide their spirit in any way.
The Cadenhead’s isn’t materially different in sherry influence from the official bottling - yes it seems less sherry influenced, but not a million miles off. It is great, but as it tastes more adjacent to the official bottlings, I suspect that a lot of the official bottled 12 year old is also in refill oloroso. The Woodrow’s is a departure; it’s not adjacent, but is showing the quality of the Tamdhu spirit and has definitely made me respect it significantly more than I already did.
I think the thing I have missing from this review is an official bottling that was fully first-fill oloroso matured.
Which would I buy again? I wouldn’t bother with the 12-year-old; or the Cadenhead’s. I’m in the camp of yes - the Woodrow’s, of course I would.
It’s barking mad and I love it.
Tried these? Share your thoughts in the comments below. CC
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At the point of this article’s publication, Tamdhu does not appear in the Dramface Top 40.
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Other opinions on this:
Whiskybase:
Official 12yo
Cadenhead’s 12yo
Woodrow’s 10yo
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