Tamdhu 8 Years Old 2014 Cask #DMG 16943 (Douglas McGibbon)

From Douglas McGibbon comes this Tamdhu, an 8 year old from 2014, drawn from cask DMG 16943 and bottled at 48%. 327 bottles in all. Tamdhu was opened in 1897 in Knockando, Speyside; it once ran the last Saladin box maltings in Scotland. Water comes from the Tamdhu Spring, the distillery set on the banks of the Spey.

The spirit was made in copper stills and filled into sherry seasoned oak, for a fragrant, fruity spirit with weight for the cask. A refill American oak cask held it, keeping the malt to the fore. Younger here, it keeps a lively fruit over a developing sherry depth. Long ageing turns the orchard fruit towards fig, raisin and a warm spice. 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. Sherry casks, both Spanish and American oak, define the modern Tamdhu.

At 48%, undiluted, it is deep and sherried. Ex-Bourbon oak gives vanilla, honey and orchard fruit. The texture is rich and rounded, the fruit lifted by sherry. The finish is deep, waxy and spiced. This is a sherry matured Speyside single malt.