Tamnavulin is the only distillery in the part of Scotland that used to be called 'Glenlivet' which is actually situated next to the river 'Livet' - all the other distilleries in the area are located further away from the river. In 1993 Whyte & Mackay bought Invergordon Distillers for £382,000,000.- The purchase included the Bruichladdich, Isle of Jura and Tullibardine malt whisky distilleries, as well as the Invergordon grain whisky distillery on the Cromarty Firth. The new owners closed down Tamnavulin distillery in May 1995 and changed their name to JBB (Greater Europe).

1) Although the Tamnavulin distillery itself is quite modern, the visitor centre which closed in the 1990's wasn't.
It was located in the old wool mill at Tomnavoulin which was used to card the wool that shepherds collected from the flocks of sheep in the area.

2) In 2007, Vijay Mallya ranked #31 in the list of Forbes Asia's richest individuals in India. At that time his wealth was estimated at $1.3 billion - which means he could have bought Whyte & Mackay from his own 'pocket money'.

3) The waterwheel that powered the machinery at Tamnavulin has been restored.

4) The front label of the official bottling that was available in the late 1990's screamed 'This Naturally Light Rare
Single Malt Scotch Whisky takes its colour from the Oak Casks, during it's Twelve long years of Maturation'. Yeah, right...
A keen observer will soon notice that this is actually a LOAD OF CRAP! The EU back label clearly states that Tamnavulin is artificially coloured with E150a! For those of you outside the EU: that's plain caramel...
 

Tamnavulin 12yo (40%, OB, Bottled +/- 2007)
Nose: Dusty & grassy with herbs in the back of the nose. String beans. Flowery & sweeter after breathing.
Taste: It feels quite rough on the palate. Some bitterness - although not quite as much as the Fettercairn.
Score: 71 points - but it needs some time to get there... This was never a real favourite of mine... 

Tamnavulin 12yo (40%, OB, Bottled +/- 1999, Green tube) - 58 points
Nose: Veggy. Oily. Light. Spirity. Something more floral after a while. Early fruits.
The oily element grows stronger. Chemical. Vegetables - raw cabbage? Quite restrained; seems a little 'grainy'.
Taste: Smooth & quite flat. Dusty, veggy & bitter in the start. Coffee? The centre & finish are very oily.
Taste: Slightly off, like rotten fruit. Hint of pepper? Grappa? Lack of sweetness. A little 'chemical'.
I found a slight bitterness in the finish. It's a relatively juvenile Speysider.
Conclusion: 58 points - ot nearly as good as the 10 years old I tried a few years ago.
The tenner (rating 71 points) had an endearing freshness that's completely absent in this version.
And the humbug on the label makes sure it gets a few extra penalty-points.

Tamnavulin 12yo (40%, OB Ltd., Bottled +/- 1997)
Nose: Oily. Chemical. Vegetables - raw cabbage? Quite restrained. Seems a little 'grainy'.
Taste: Slightly off, like rotten fruit. Hint of pepper? Grappa? Lack of sweetness. A little 'chemical'.
Score: 72 points - the difference with the 10yo expression is fairly minimal.

Tamnavulin 10yo (40%, OB, Bottled +/- 1997)
Nose: Something very different. Oily & grassy.  Wonderful lightness. Undemanding but quite nice.
Taste: A fresh sweetness with a nice long finish. Some bitterness. Not really my "type" of whisky.
Score: 71 points - I won't shed too many tears because the distillery was closed.
 

These were not all the (official and independent) expressions of Tamnavulin 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.
 

The Tamnavulin distillery (the name is Gaelic for 'mill
on the hill') was built relatively recently (in 1965/1966)
by Tamnavulin-Glenlivet Distillery Co Ltd. - a subsidiary
of Invergordon Distillers Ltd. The Tamnavulin distillery
was constructed in response to the growing demand
for malt whisky by blenders.
 
The Tamnavulin distillery (some of the sources use an
alternative spelling of the name; Tomnavoulin) has six
stills that have mainly produced malt whisky for blends
like Mackinlay, Whyte & Mackay and Crawfords. It has
eight stainless steel washbacks, as well as a Saladin
box which was used for the malting of the barley. The
relatively modern equipment enabled Tamnavulin to
annually produce an impressive amount of malt whisky;
four million litres (most of it used for blends).

JBB was the new name for 'American Brands' from the United States.
In the continuing corporate take-over dance they were taken over by
Kyndal International in 2001 as part of a management buy-out. At this
point the price was a little over 200 million pounds, so the sale probably
didn't include all the distilleries that had been part of the package when
Whyte & Mackay bought Invergordon Distillers in 1993. The new owners
changed their name back to Whyte & Mackay in 2003. They were bought
by United Spirits (an investment vehicle from Indian businessman and
politician Vijay Mallya) in 2007. With this purchase, the influence of
Asian interests in the Scottish whisky industry grew significantly.

The international credit crisis reared its ugly head not long after United Spirits had taken over
Whyte & Mackay. Interestingly enough, the consortium of banks that were involved with the
purchase (including ICICI Bank & Citibank) pushed for a far higher purchase price than what
others felt was reasonable. Since Vijay Mallya had relied heavily on credit in order to afford
the purchase of the company, the credit crisis significantly influenced the strategic possibilities
that were available to Whyte & Mackay. So, Mallya was looking to sell off W&M again in 2009.
When I wrote this update (May 2009), the further future of Tamnavulin was still uncertain.

Tamnavulin is a modern, efficient distillery that's capable of
producing four million litres of alcohol a year. The stillhouse
heats the incoming wash with the most recently distilled batch
of spirit. Tamnavulin's water supply (for distillation) is stored in
an underground reservoir which is connected to the distillery
via an underground pipe. Cooling water comes from the Livet.

The history of Tamnavulin is fairly similar to that of Tullibardine.
The Tullibardine distillery is fairly modern. It was founded quite
recently (in 1949) and was obtained by Brodie Hepburn a few
years after it was founded. They were bought by Invergordon
two decades later, in 1971. In 1993 Whyte & Mackay (part of
Fortune Brands) gobbled up Invergordon. Just like Tamnavulin,
Tullibardine was mothballed temporarily by Whyte & Mackay.

Tamnavulin was mothballed by Whyte & Mackay's previous owners, but after being taken over by Vijay
Mallya in early 2007, the company invested significant sums of capital to get it re-opened again to meet
the large demand for whisky. Operation at Tamnavulin resumed in July 2007. However, when the credit
crisis broke loose all around the world one year later in '08, demand for whisky (and especially the more
expensive single malt whisky variety) diminished. I wrote the last update of this profile in the summer
of 2009, at which point the credit crisis was still raging. It remains to be seen how the whisky world
will look in 2010 when the first distillations of Tamnavulin will be mature enough to be called whisky.
In 2008 a spokesperson for the company said: "Once we are in a position to bottle the whisky then we
will be looking at other markets such as travel retail, and the US . It's just a bit premature at the moment,
but for a small, lesser known brand it's amazing how many people have been following its progress since
we re-opened the distillery."
 
According to the Malt Whisky Yearbook 2009 Tamnavulin distillery employed 13 people in 2008.
Working seven days a week they managed to produce 23 mashes within one week. This equals an
annual production of 3,5 million litres of alcohol; a little below the maximum capacity of 4 million litres.
Tamnavulin used one full-lauter mash tun and eight washbacks (four 'mild steel, four stainless steel).
Out of the weekly production, only 200 casks are filled on site and stored in one of the two racked
warehouses. The rest of the spirit is transported to Invergordon to be filled and matured there.