Next stop, Tamdhu station
TL;DR: On our second day at the Spirit of Speyside, we checked out the Pictish Stones before driving to the first distillery of the day. This is a famous one for sherry cask maturation: Tamdhu! Not the prettiest one, but an interesting visit nonetheless.
We woke up early (campervan life!) but well rested. Because the weather was still a bit cold (3°C in the morning!), and also because we still needed to get a comfortable mattress for the pop-up roof (the basic self-inflatable ones provided at purchase were “not great”, let’s just say), we slept “downstairs” in the van. This means you can’t basically do nothing before putting the rock-and-roll bed bad together. Once done that, we could have breakfast: black coffee (we’re still Italian), fruits, yogurt and crumpets. The latter is becoming one of our official campervan breakfast supplies, after we ”discovered” them during our 2022 Orkney trip.
Being a sunny morning (the only one in the holiday), the temperature quickly raised, so before hitting the road we had a wee walk. There was a church there, with a porch hosting the Inveravon Pictish stones, uncovered in 1878 and dating back to the 7th-9th century. These are carved with animals and other symbols, quite a nice small bonus for the morning. Back to the van, we left directed towards the first distillery of the day: Tamdhu!
We didn’t have to travel much, and as we were a few minutes early, we drove to Knockando distillery (at the moment not operational), just a stone’s throw away, for a quick snoop. Tamdhu distillery is located near the river Spey, quite hidden from the main road. We parked at the (former) train station, a familiar spot for us: it is where the Dramathon half-marathon starts. For the festival, the wee building was turned into a the visitor centre, with a pop-up shop, while another building was renovated into a “snug” for tastings (we just took a look from the outside). Our tour guides were Jackie and Mike, respectively guide at the sister distillery Glengoyne (the other owned by Ian McLeod’s, soon to be three with Rosebank), and brand ambassador. They gave us (well, they gave Teresa) a dram, the Tamdhu 12 (43%), a nice one to start with.
The distillery started producing in 1897, it isn’t the prettiest, having a very industrial look, with some parts even a bit run down (and missing the popular pagoda roof, destroyed in 1919 and never rebuilt). During its history it has been mothballed a few times, the last one between 2010 and 2013, when it was sold from Edrington to Ian McLeod (in 2011). As usual, we started the production tour from the milling room, where a big green-painted old Porteus mill was located. It was not the original, it was purchased in the mid-70s from an unknown location. One peculiarity is that they have two silent (i.e. not producing) seasons, March and September, where they switch fuel from gas to diesel. As the other two distilleries we visited, you could definitely see that it is not a place geared for tourists.
We soon moved to the tun room with its closed stainless-steel mash tun. Next, we checked out the 9 wooden washbacks where the wash is fermented for 59 hours. Jackie and Mike kindly opened a few of them to make us smell the wash at different stages of fermentation. As usual, it was then time for the stills: they have 3 pairs of wash and spirit stills. As we always do, we asked for the cuts of the “heart” (what goes in the casks), but they explicitly said they could not tell us…maybe they were afraid we open our distillery to copy them, ahah!
We then took a walk in the courtyard, before visiting a dunnage warehouse, one of the 28 warehouses across all their sites. They have also racked and palletised warehouses, but for their single malt they only use dunnage and racked. Sandy, the distillery manager, was waiting for us in the warehouse. It was a very nice part of the tour: he told some stories about the distillery, their commitment to source only the best sherry casks (well…like most distilleries, so we wonder who gets all the crappy ones).
Finally, after a wee walk back to the visitor centre, it was time for the other two drams, both very delicious sherried ones: Tamdhu 15 and Tamdhu 18. It’s just a shame that prices for these are slowly creeping up, probably moving their target towards the high-end market. As a confirmation, their Spirit of Speyside exclusive, the Dalbeallie Dram (which we could not try there), was £100. When Gianluigi asked information about it, including the age, the guides started a mini-rant about how age is not important and whisky can be delicious at young age. We definitely agree, but if you want to sell us a whisky for 100 quid “blind” (meaning, without letting us try it), the minimum you can do is telling us about everything on the liquid. They were very generous with the driver’s drams however, a pack of three 5cl miniatures – Tamdhu 12, 15 and 18. Hooray!!!
Well, another distillery under our belt. Overall, we enjoyed the tour, and we learned a lot about Tamdhu, definitely a dram to try for all sherry bombs aficionados (although, it’s more delicate than most sherry bomb drams, very balanced). Stay tuned to learn about the rest of the day. Slaintè!
Tamdhu Tour (Spirit of Speyside)
Price: £35.00 pp (April 2023)
Duration: 1hr 30min
Tasting: 3 drams, Tamdhu 12 (43%), 15 (46%) and 18 (48%)
Target: whisky enthusiasts
Value for money: good (if not very good, considering how expensive Tamdhu 18 is)
Highlights: a real working site
Recommended: if you’re a fan of sherried whiskies
Link: https://www.tamdhu.com/, https://www.spiritofspeyside.com/
Dramming around 