Tamnavulin Sherry Cask Edition - 40%
Today I thought would be a good time to delve into the sub-£40 market and explore a whisky that, on the surface, would appear to offer real value for money.
This time it’s the turn of Tamnavulin, a Speyside distillery which has experienced fluctuating fortunes over the years. First opened in 1966 in the village of Tomnavoulin, in the heart of Speyside and close to the River Livet, the distillery closed it’s doors in 1995 only to reopen them again in 2007 following a major refurbishment. The distillery takes it’s name from from the Gaelic for ‘mill on the hill’ and refers to the old mill which still sits on the distillery site, with the old mill wheel featuring on the bottle label.
The bottling we’re looking at today was initially matured in American Oak casks, followed by finishing in three different types of Sherry cask. This is a No Age Statement (NAS) whisky, bottled at 40% abv.
Nose: Vanilla, orchard fruits, brown sugar, hints of caramel and ginger and citrus fruit.
Palate: Vanilla, dried fruits, ginger spice, brown sugar and caramel combined with almond nuttiness. Pudding in a glass.
Finish: The finish takes you away from rich sticky toffee pudding and real vanilla custard to a more classic fruit cake, the dried fruit and candied peel notes coming to the fore.
Summary: This is a gentle, easy drinking whisky with plenty of character. It’s not a whisky that is going to set the world alight, but that’s not what it’s there for. You could argue that the 40% abv perhaps lets it down a little, and it would be genuinely interesting to see this at around 46%. That said, this was a fraction over £30 at the time of purchase, and at that price point it’s hard to fault and offers great bang for the buck.
