Tamdhu was down for about half a year I think it was, back in 2009/2010, but its now back up and running with new owners Ian MacLeod's Distillers. A distillery that very often falls below the radar, let's see how this all CS-session will work out.
Tamdhu 25yo 50.1% Whisky-Doris
Whisky-Doris is a great indie bottler, that thrives more on quality than quantity. The color on this one is golden. It smells sweet, aniseed, bitter licorice, tea, hay, dried herbs. The taste is sweet and peppery, bitter, aniseeds, herbs, red onions, needs a bit of water to open up. Now it turns more bitter, tonic, tannic, grainy, drying, text-book fino-matured whisky.
Great stuff, but for those with an acquired taste: 6
Tamdhu 20yo 1990-2011 49.8% Malts of Scotland cask#8119
A sample from www.whiskysamples.eu. From a sherry butt. Color is deep golden/bronze. It smells sweet, honey, apricot jam, heather, mint leaves, butterscotch, a sweet treat. The taste is again honey, ginger, white rum, raisins, peppery, spirity. I do like it, but it seems to come from a tired cask, not much vitality left in this whisky.
Light, easy, sweet sherried malt: 6
Tamdhu 20yo 1988-2009 54.3% Krüger's Schloss Whisky for www.whiskyauction.com
Deep orange hue on this one, another sherried one? Doesn't have to be, there are really dark bourbon matured whiskies as well. It smells rich, peppery, honied, lemon, leeks, burnt oak. The taste is sweet, marzipan, bourbon, cream liqueur, balsamic vinaigrette, banana peel, mustard. With a touch of water it gets peppery, burnt, loses some of the sweetness and gets more bitter.
Without water: 7
Tamdhu 15yo 1989-2004 58.2% James MacArthur's Old Master's cask#8132
Time to try the high strength youngsters in this session. I must say that this series can seem a bit misleading as Old Master's is not a series of old whisky necessarily, but rather a series of whisky from old distilleries. The color is white wine. It smells peppery, vanilla, bitter, lemon, lime, white grapes. Interesting, a nose that don't give away too much. The taste is sweet, bananas, vanilla, oranges, honey, peppery, very straight-forward, but all with great flavors to show off. I like this a lot. Some blue cheese, cinnamon and tamarind in the background.
The best one in this session, a more revealed spirit: 7.5
Tamdhu 12yo 1994-2007 61.1% Enjoy Whisky cask#1998 btl.174/217
I did own a whole 75cl of this one, from which I grabbed this sample, but sad to say it didn't give me many pleasures. Hopefully, in company with other Tamdhus, it'll be able to shine a bit more. The label quoted "dark sherry", but it's far from a dark whisky. Dark golden at best. It smells burnt, citrus fruits, oranges, grapefruit, green apples, mint, spirity. The taste is sweet and sherried at first, mango chutney, honey, cinnamon, creamy, thick. Then goes into a more peppery and spirity style, probably due to the high strength. With some water added it turns sweeter, more bitter, fino style, extremely peppery and bitter, hard to detect other nuances. Again I would not put water in this one.
A glimmer of greatness on the nose and at first sip, the rest is just foul: 3.5
Next tasting: Bladnoch Distillery
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