Tamdhu Batch Strength Whisky Review!

Tamdhu has recently popped up in Australia, and at very reasonable prices from a certain large retailer. So this cask strength, sherry cask-matured example was hard to pass-up - and if memory serves it's my first dram from this distillery!

At first glance, Tamdhu (Gaelic for "little dark hill" and pronounced "tam-doo") seems like many of the lesser-known Speyside distilleries where most of their production goes to blended whiskies - it's not a very interesting one. In fact even the distillery's own promotional material puts almost 100% of its focus on the casks use for maturation, with almost no mention of the distillery itself or the spirit that it produces. But once you delve a little deeper, there is actually a little history there. Founded in Knockando, east of the town of Craigellachie in 1897 by none other than William Grant himself, it was designed by famous distillery architect Charles Doig, who was responsible for the "pagoda" roofs (real name Doig Ventilators) that have become synonymous with whisky distilleries in Scotland - although they seem to be missing from this distillery! It wasn't exactly smooth-sailing from there, with the distillery closing in 1927 while under the control of Edrington-predecessor Highland Distillers, and staying that way for twenty years. Soon after re-opening the distillery's original floor maltings were replaced with ten Saladin malting boxes, which explains the lack of Doig ventilator / 'pagoda' roofs. Saladin boxes are large open-topped containers that can hold over 20 tons of barley each, and use a mechanical system of pulley-driven screws to turn the barley as it germinates, thus cutting out most of the manual labour from the malting process. Tamdhu was among the first to adopt these Saladin boxes, and put them to good use by supplying 100% of its own malt requirements, and some of Edrington's other distilleries as well - notably Highland Park and Glenrothes. This also meant that Tamdhu was for a long time one of the few distilleries of the modern-era to supply 100% of its own barley requirements in-house, although that ended with the most recent change of ownership, when the maltings were decommissioned and the barley externally sourced from commerical malting companies, as is unfortunately the modern way. 

Edrington closed Tamdhu again in 2009, before it was purchased by Ian McLeod Distillers in 2012 - who also own Glengoyne Distillery, and produce a multitude of blended whiskies and independent bottlings such as Isle of Skye, Smokehead, Six Isles and Sheep Dip. They're also now the owners of the mighty Rosebank, which they are bringing back to life after its closure back in 1993. Since Tamdhu changed hands in 2012 the distillery has been rebranded with more emphasis put on a larger range of single malts, along with new updated packaging, a new visitor's centre and additional warehouses. Their current annual capacity is around three million litres of spirit, produced in nine wooden washbacks and six copper pot stills, and stored in a mix of dunnage, racked and palletized warehouses. While the decommissioning of the maltings facility is a shame, Tamdhu that was distilled prior to 2009 - so a good portion of the bottlings that are available today - will have been distilled from this in-house malted barley, so it's not out of reach just yet. These days the distillery's main point of difference is that they exclusively use sherry casks to mature their spirit, mainly of the ex-Oloroso sherry variety, including both American and European oak. The current range of single malts include a 12-year old entry-level bottling, a limited release 15-year old, and the NAS 'Batch Strength', along with some scarcer limited releases. There are still quite a few independent bottlings around, mostly from the likes of Gordon & MacPhail and Cadenheads, although that's likely to dry up after the change in ownership. 

The Tamdhu that we're looking at today is one of many non-age statement, cask strength sherry cask-matured Speyside single malts that you'll find on Australian shelves these days - think along the lines of Glengoyne Cask Strength, Glenfarclas 105, Glendronach Cask Strength and Aberlour A'Bunadh, with Glenrothes and Macallan also dabbling in the same territory at times. These are all batch releases, with the number of bottles per batch being undisclosed, and using different varieties of sherry casks - or more accurately, sherry seasoned casks, usually refill. This Tamdhu is no different, although they do state that a "high proportion" of the Oloroso sherry casks used were first-fill casks, and that both American and European oak casks have been used. Based on the smell and taste though, I'm going to guesstimate that the majority were refill American oak sherry casks. This bottling is from Batch 004, bottled in 2019, which was the first to be officially imported into Australia and was bottled at 57.8% ABV. It's non-chill filtered and naturally coloured, which also applies to the aforementioned 15-year old. This Batch Strength bottling is priced very well in Australia at $114 AUD, although it's only available from a certain large retailer which has directly imported the brand for its own distribution. That price does put this Tamdhu in line with the likes of the Glenfarclas and Glengoyne options mentioned above, and quite a way below the current pricing of the Aberlour and Glendronach examples - both of which are now sitting north of $150 AUD. The Tamdhu Batch Strength has been getting quite a bit of attention since its arrival, and it makes for a very interesting comparison between those other high strength 'sherry bomb' options. Time to get into it, then!

Tamdhu Batch Strength, Batch 004. NAS, 57.8%. Speyside, Scotland.

Bottled 2019, matured in ex-Oloroso sherry casks of both American and European oak. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Medium amber. 

Nose: Apricots & vanilla cream, with sweet nectarine and white peach in syrup on the side. Spun brown sugar toffee, white pepper, clove and ginger spice. A touch of orange zest, vanilla fudge and some fresh oak. A bit of nippy heat still there as well. 

Texture: Medium weight. Syrupy and sweet, still a bit of heat here too. 

Taste: More syrupy sweet stone fruit - nectarine, peach and apricot again. Fresh ginger chunks, vanilla cream and punchy spices - clove and pepper again plus some dried red chilli flakes here. Charred oak and that brown sugar toffee in the background. 

Finish: Medium length. More vanilla cream and charred oak, a nice touch of coffee grounds. Then spirit-y heat - even 3-ish months after opening. It does fade though, leaving more dried fruits now - currants and dried orange slices. Toffee again too. 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: It's a tasty whisky, but it's hot in places and bordering on harsh on occasion - particularly on the finish. And this bottle has been open for more than three months, with the level being below the shoulder almost the whole time, so it's had plenty of time to breathe and settle down. And it has calmed down a little, but there are still flashes of rawness at times. It actually feels like it's been rushed, which is a shame, but it's not uncommon in this style of high ABV non-age statement sherry cask / "sherry bomb" scene. Glenfarclas 105 in particular can be downright harsh & fire-y in the right batch - or rather in the wrong one! And even contemporary batches of A'Bunadh can be very hot at times. While it's at the top of the price scale, I still think Glendronach's NAS Cask Strength series are the pick of this bunch - but I'd have to suggest that you skip Batch 7, unfortunately it was the low point of the batches that I've tried to date. I'm yet to try its replacement in Batch 8, but from the reports I've seen things seem to have picked up again to where they left off with Batch 6, which is a relief. 

This Tamdhu is certainly a pleasant experience though, and the value for money is commendable - this bottle is around $40-50 AUD cheaper than the Glendronach I mentioned above. Luckily there's still plenty of flavour alongside those (temporary) flashes of spirit-y heat, with delicious sweet fruit, vanilla and bright sweetness showing through nicely. I still think it was mostly American oak casks in the mix (but all ex-Oloroso, remember). And the stone fruit on the nose and palate are the highlights of the show. If you're a fan of these high ABV, rough & ready sherry cask whiskies then this one won't disappoint - in fact it's sweeter and brighter than most of it's stablemates. 

Cheers!