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From the pocket of a waxed cotton jacket, the Panel pulled handfuls of buttered popcorn, warm toffees, dolly mixture and slices of sticky malt loaf. The palate differentiated from the nose by delivering bergamot, and a splash of pear and mango in coconut milk. Water gave clotted cream on the nose, with apricot and strawberry jams, brown ale, and vanilla custard wrapped in waxed paper. The palate had pink peppercorns joining the custard, jalapeño salsa with gooseberries, and lime juice squeezed into peach syrup.
About Tamdhu
A major player in blends such as The Famous Grouse and Cutty Sark, Tamdhu was also the spiritual home of the lesser seen (but high quality) Dunhill blend.
Although a few official single malt bottlings appeared, including a light-bodied 10-year-old, Tamdhu could hardly be regarded as a frontline player. It has a fragrant fruitiness with notes of honey and apple but sufficient weight to cope with ageing in ex-Sherry casks.
Like neighbouring Knockando, this is another late 19th century railway distillery which has quietly provided fillings for blends ever since. It was built in 1897 by a group of blenders headed by William Grant who was both a director of Highland Distillers and, handily enough, on the board of the Elgin bank. The famous distillery designer Charles Doig was the architect. ‘[It is] perhaps the most efficient and designed distillery of its era,’ wrote Alfred Barnard in 1898.
Highland Distillers (now Edrington) purchased it outright in 1899, but like many sites it had a rocky time, closing from 1927 and remaining silent for two decades. Soon after its reopening, the old floor maltings were replaced with 10 Saladin boxes, each capable of holding 22 tons of malt. This would become the last site in Scotland to retain this method of malting and was one of the few distilleries in the modern era to malt all of its own requirements (the others being Springbank, Glen Ord and more recently, Roseisle). As well as its own needs, it supplied all of the malt for Glenrothes and the unpeated component of Highland Park’s.
Tamdhu grew substantially in the 1970s with four stills added to the original pair, while a change in wood policy in the 1990s saw it being filled exclusively into Edrington’s bespoke ex-Sherry casks.
Somewhat surprisingly, Edrington mothballed it in 2010, but two years later, Ian MacLeod stepped in. The firm has since installed new washbacks, built new warehouses, opened a visitors' centre (in the old Dalbeallie station) and released a 100% Sherried 10-year-old. Older releases are planned.
About SMWS
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) was founded in 1983 by a group of friends lead by tax accountant Phillip ‘Pip’ Hills as a private members club. The concept behind the society was to source casks from all over Scotland which would then be bottled and made available exclusively to its members. Perhaps the most famous feature of these bottles are the unique codes. Each distillery is represented by a different number and the following digits indicate that particular release. That same year, the SMWS set up its first location in Leith’s Vault buildings in Edinburgh where it still stands today.
60.8% ABV