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The Good Spirits Co
The Good Spirits Company are a Glasgow-based spirits retailer that occasionally bottles limited releases of single cask Scotch whisky. Their recent run of bottlings has been rather spectacular with excellent drams from Glenrothes, Bunnahabhain and Laphroaig. So when I heard that their next bottling was to be a Tamdhu, a distillery I’ve always enjoyed, I knew I had to pick one up.
Tamdhu
A product of the industrial age, Tamdhu was founded by a group of blenders in 1897. The founders sought out famed distillery architect, Charles Doig, to design the facility. Doig set about creating what would later be described as the most technologically advanced distillery of its time in Alfred Barnard’s 1902 book The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom.
Tamdhu was under the ownership of Highland Distillers (now Edrington) when the distillery was mothballed in 2010. The future must have seemed grim at the time but fortunately, that situation wasn’t to last. Ian Macleod Distillers, owners of Glengoyne, stepped in just two years later and have since rebranded and relaunched the single malt with 10-year-old and batch strength versions packaged in an attractive Victorian-style bottle.
While Tamdhu is usually aged in ex-sherry casks, the Good Spirits have unearthed a whisky matured for 9 years in ex-bourbon barrels.
Smell: A bit muted at first and needs water to open up but there’s Vanilla, Honeycomb and Spice, Apple, Lemon and Cream, Malt & even a touch of Coconut.
Taste: Lots of Spice on the palate and benefits from a splash of water though the heat remains. Oak, Caramel, Honey and Lime and maybe my imagination but a tiny hint of Smoke..?
Thoughts: Value for money seems to be high on the agenda for the folks at the Good Spirits. A nine-year-old, cask strength Tamdhu for less than £50 seems like a no-brainer to me. I must confess, however, that I didn’t love it quite as much as the last few bottles. Being so different from distillery bottlings makes it interesting, but I’m just not sure there’s anything here to really fall in love with. Of course, not every dram can be spectacular. What this is, is a solid, dependable, bourbon-matured whisky.
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For more on the Good Spirits Company…
