Review - Tamdhu 15 years old

The Tamdhu 15 years old is a new core range single malt from the increasingly popular Speyside distillery. The whisky has been matured in ex-Oloroso sherry casks made from American and European oak. These were selected by Sandy McIntyre, the Distillery Manager at Tamdhu, and then married together. The new expression will sit alongside the 10 and 12 year olds, plus the Batch Strength in the domestic core range. Tamdhu is becoming well known for its use of ex-sherry casks and last year saw their award-winning Spain To Speyside campaign take many plaudits. To watch the short film - click here.

The Tamdhu distillery is located in the centre of the Speyside region of Scotland, close to the hamlet of Knockando. It was founded in 1896 by the Tamdhu Distillery Company, which was formed of a consortium of whisky blenders. Throughout its history the whisky produced has largely been used in blends and it is only really under the ownership of Ian Macleod Distillers, who took control in 2011, that the full restoration of Tamdhu as a single malt brand has taken place. The current production capacity is four million litres per annum.

"All our whisky at Tamdhu is exclusively matured in the finest Oloroso sherry seasoned oak casks. When you taste this new Tamdhu 15 Year Old, you can really taste the time and care that has gone in to creating this incredible whisky." 
Sandy McIntyre.

The Tamdhu 15 years old is bottled at 46% ABV and is non chill-filtered and of natural colour. It will be available globally via specialist domestic retailers and will cost £85 per bottle. For more information, please visit www.tamdhu.com.

Our tasting notes
The colour is a deep golden amber and the nose has a richness and fruitiness to it. There are immediate aromas of dried apple, raisins, sultanas and candied orange peel. These are followed by toffee and caramel with some increasingly heavy and slightly earthy oak spices coming through.

On the palate this whisky carries on that richness and fruitiness. It is laden with notes of dried fruit (the apple, raisin, sultana and peel from the nose, plus some apricot and peach now) and the toffe/caramel characteristic becomes more exaggerated. The combination is reminiscent of a tarte tatin doused in a fine Cognac. Later notes then begin to appear - think of bittersweet malt, toasted almonds and a host of warming, earthy spices. The most prominent of these are cinnamon, all-spice, clove and liquoirce root.  There is also a pinch of cocoa powder and hints of gingerbread and cookie dough in the background.

The finish is long and rich with the dried fruits to the fore. This gives the whisky a delicious juicy and luscious feeling. The earthy oak spices then begin to come through later and give a drier edge to proceedings.

What's the verdict?
This is a sublime single malt from Tamdhu and one that shows how vibrant ex-sherry cask matured whiskies can be. Often they can be heavy and overly woody, but the fresh juicy fruitiness helps to lift this Tamdhu to a different level. It is one of the better ex-sherry cask whiskies that we have sampled recently and it will surely help to put Tamdhu fully back on the map as a single malt brand, and one of significant quality at that.