Tamdhu 8 Years Old 2014 Cask #DL 16345 (Provenance)

Douglas Laing bottled this Tamdhu single malt, aged 8 year old from 2014, drawn from cask DL 16345 and bottled at 46%. The outturn was 355 bottles. Set on the banks of the Spey in Speyside, Tamdhu has distilled since 1897. Tamdhu ran the last Saladin box maltings in Scotland, the boxes still standing on site.

Distilled in copper onion stills on Tamdhu Spring water, for a rich Speyside spirit built to take sherry wood. Maturation in Oloroso sherry laid fig and raisin over the spirit. Younger here, it keeps a lively fruit over a developing sherry depth. Years in oak round the spirit, the dried fruit and spice deepening with age. Tamdhu was built in 1897 by a consortium of blenders led by William Grant. The arrival of the Strathspey railway in the 1860s made the distillery possible. For decades its malt fed blends such as the Famous Grouse and Cutty Sark. Mothballed in 2010, the distillery was revived by Ian Macleod and relaunched in 2013.

Reduced to 46%, it is mellow. The Oloroso brings raisin, walnut and dark sugar. The mouthfeel is rich, the fruit carried on a sherried body. Fig, raisin and oak see out a long finish. This is a rich, sherried Speyside single malt.