The Tamdhu distillery is located north of the Spey river, right next to the
Knockando Burn. It was designed by Charles Doig and built in 1896 by the
Tamdhu Distillery Company (which was owned by a group of blenders). In
the summer of 1897 the very first casks of Tamdhu malt whisky were filled.

During the last few decades of the 19th century a lot of distilleries were
constructed in the upper Spey valley, home of the 'Glenlivet' style of malts.
This relatively remote part of Scotland became accessible by the opening of
a railway line in 1863 and during the 'whisky boom' of the time many wine
and spirit merchants were eager to invest their capital  in new distilleries in
the area. Speculation ended at the very end of the 19th century when the
house of cards collapsed, but many distilleries have survived until this day.

The decline in the fortunes of the Scotch whisky industry at the end of the 19th century was known as 'the Pattison crisis' - but since I've already written quite a bit about it in other distillery profiles (for example the Glenfarclas profile) I won't bore you with the details here. Instead, I'll focus on the fortunes of the Tamdhu distillery. One of the driving forces behind the construction of the distillery was a director of Highland Distilleries by the name of William Grant. He appointed Charles Doig to design Tamdhu and made every effort to make sure that Tamdhu would be as modern as possible. That didn't prevent the distillery from running into some legal troubles, though...

By the end of 1897, just months after Tamdhu distillery became operational, competitors took legal action against the young distillery. They argued against Tamdhu's right to extract large quantities of water from various sources (wells and burns) and discharge waste products into the river Spey. After these issues were resolved Tamdhu further strengthened its position by a merger between Tamdhu Distillery Company and Highland Distillers Company (where many of the blenders that founded Tamdhu were involved with as well). At the time the company also owned Glenrothes, Glenglassaugh and Bunnahabhain and was a major 'player' in the industry.

Tamdhu distillery was closed between 1911 and 1913. Between 1920
and 1925 the output increased considerably, but in 1928 (just before
the global depression broke loose) Tamdhu was mothballed yet again.
The distillery remained closed for two decades this time, only reopening
after the Second World War in July 1948. Two years later, in 1950, the
floor maltings was replaced with Saladin boxes. Currently, Tamdhu is
the only whisky distillery still using this 19th century French invention.

Tamdhu enjoyed another two relatively uneventful decades until the 1970's when the
production capacity was increased significantly and its whisky was introduced as a single
malt for the first time. In 1972 the number of stills was doubled from two to four and three
years later in 1975 another pair of stills was added. In 1976 it was introduced as an eight
years old single malt. These days the label of the youngest official bottling doesn't carry an
age statement anymore, but several sources claim it's still around eight years old. I'd say
that makes sense because Gordon & Macphail also released this whisky at this age when
they used to carry a semi-official bottling in their MacPhail's Collection series (depicted at
the right). In the 1990's the affordable Tamdhu NAS official bottling didn't make a lasting
impression, but these days it's one of the best value single malts on the market.

1) Tamdhu is one of almost two dozen malt whisky distilleries that were founded over a century ago during the 'whisky boom' of the late 19th century and which have managed to survive until this day. The other survivors include Aberfeldy, Ardmore, Aultmore, Balvenie, Benriach, Benromach, Bruichladdich, Bunnahabhain, Dalwhinnie, Dufftown, Glendullan, Glenfiddich, Glenrothes, Glentauchers, Knockandu, Knockdhu, Longmorn and Tomatin.

2) Most of the production from Tamdhu distillery is used in blends like Famous Grouse, J&B and Cutty Sark.

3) The barley that is used for Tamdhu (Cellar, Optic & Golden Promise) generally comes from the East of Scotland. Tamdhu distillery processes circa 44 tonnes of barley on any given working day.

4) Tamdhu distillery has nine Oregon Pine washbacks with a capacity of over 50,000 litres each.

5) In 1966 the malting capacity at Tamdhu was doubled.

6) More trivia about Tamdhu will be added later...
 

Tamdhu NAS (40%, OB, Bottled +/- 2007) - still the most affordable good malt in our local corner shop.
Nose: Starts off fruity, followed by grain attick and dust. Fresh dough. A beautiful round profile.
Taste: Fairly weak start, needs some time. A little chalky. Nice, solid centre - but weaker in the finish.
Score: 75 points - this expression has remained affordable for over a decade and just got better.

Tamdhu-Glenlivet 10yo (58.9%, Cadenhead's, Bottled +/- 2003, 18.75cl)
Nose: Honey sweetness. Slightly oily. Lemon. Dried apples. Cinnamon! A bit like apple pie.
Not very expressive. A little more spices and organics after some water. Something fishy?
Taste: Dry, short and flat at C/S. Woody. Beer-like bitterness in the grainy finish.
Smoother with hints of cinnamon and liquorice with water. Still not very exciting.
Score: 74 points - let's give it time to breathe for a bit before I give it another go.

Tamdhu 1961/2000 (40%, Gordon & MacPhail's)
Nose: Fruits & dust. Refined and incredibly complex. Only needs a minute to make a lasting impression.
Taste: Smoky, serious and austere. A surprising contract to the nose that enhances the overall appeal.
Score: 90 points - so once again it's the very best expression from this distillery I've tried so far.
And not just that; its also the sixth! That means I can cross one more distillery from my to-do list.

Tamdhu 1988/1997 (60.8%, Gordon & MacPhail, D. 14/12/1988, B. 06/1997)
Nose: Humh.... Feels young and a bit herbal too, just like the North Port. That's too bad...
I like to think I'm open-minded, but I just can't make myself like this oily / eucalyptus style.
Taste: Again, quite similar to the North Port. Oil? Mainly herbal with an odd, cloying sweetness.
And while the North Port showed some improvement after a long time, this one didn't. Bugger...
Score: 54 points - once again, it's definitely not my type of whisky. I'd go for the NAS OB myself...

Tamdhu 12yo 1984/1996 (43%, Ultimate, 70cl, distilled 27/1/84, bottled 3/96, Cask #169, 410 Bottles)
Nose: Flowery, slightly oily and a little bit grainy - but not unpleasantly so. Plenty of character.
Taste: Smooth and malty. Sweetish, but with a bitter undercurrent.
Rating: 74 points - I suspect it would have scored considerably higher if they would have kept it in the cask for a few years more. Now it's not worth the extra 20 guilders compared to the OB; it only shows that the official NAS version offers pretty good value at 45 guilders (+/- 20 Euro's) a bottle.
 

These were not all the (official and independent) expressions of Tamdhu whisky I've tried over the years.
My Track Record used to contain a complete overview of all the single malts I've tried, but when I passed the 2000 malts mark (and the complete whisky list wouldn't fit on two separate HTML pages anymore) I gave up. My Liquid Log still contains my tasting notes on most single malts I've sampled and scored, though. You can find a specific expression through the search box at the top of each distillery profile. The mAlmanac now contains (purely personal) selections of some of the best single malts and the worst whiskies I've tried so far - as well as the ones with the highest 'Bang-For-Your-Buck' value. But those tasting notes and scores only reflect my own, purely personal opinions.

On Serge's distillery profile on Whiskyfun you can find another perspective on the whisky made at this distillery.
Check out the Malt Maniacs Monitor on Malt Maniacs for my scores on all expressions I've tried so far - and those of almost all the other certified malt maniacs as well. The Malt Maniacs Matrix contains a few thousand single malts that were sampled and scored by at least four different malt maniacs, so you can compare our individual opinions.