Tamdhu Batch Strength Batch 002

Getting back to my fanboy distillery, Tamdhu. Ever since my first taste of the 10 year old I was hooked and have gobbled up as many bottles as my budget has allowed. Here we have the second release in their Batch Strength series, Batch 002. This review has been a long time coming as I’ve been sitting on this sample provided by @LeeEvolved for over a year. This Speyside single malt was bottled at 58.5% ABV, non chill filtered and as all Tamdhu are, this is natural color, a nice dark copper. The nose is full on sherry with mulling spices, especially cinnamon with a little mint as well. Intense sherried oak, anise, licorice root. Spiced fruitcake, dense with dried fruits like dates, cherries and faint apricots. Cocoa powder, orange zest/oil. Somewhat nutty - Brazil and walnuts, honey, malty, tobacco and hay, ginger and leather. Toffee, caramel and a quick hit of sweet vermouth. Amazing. The palate is intensely sweet and spicy. The first sip was heavenly. Dark cherries, sherry and oak. The cherry taste is so intense and I absolutely love it. Fudge, cocoa, hazelnut. Cinnamon, clove anise, nutmeg and cola. I didn’t get a whole lot more than that because I was lost in the experience. A full bodied mouthfeel that is oily with heat, mouthwatering and mouth coating. The finish is long, the kind of long where if you drink it before bed and don’t brush your teeth you will taste it in the morning, maybe even if you do brush, lol. Sherry, cherries, oak, cinnamon and cocoa. Even though drinking this without water was incredibly satisfying I decided to add water to see what would happen. BIG MISTAKE! It brings out a little more fruit in the nose, but completely ruins the palate by muting the intensity that made it so enjoyable. This is a fantastic whisky, the best I’ve had in quite a while. Full intense flavors with a crate full of cherries. The nose was good, but the palate was great. The finish was the “low point” if it could indeed be called low. Best enjoyed 1oz at a time, as any more than that will burn out your palate with flavor overload. At around $80 it’s a great deal. Good luck finding any though, as they are now onto Batch 004. 4.5 and looking forward to getting into my bottle of Batch 003. Cheers

I got to spend some quality time with this bottle over the last month or so. This review is for the Batch Strength 002. The second batch has been getting slightly better reviews than the initial batch so that was the bottle I purchased. I’m not sure how many bottles of Batch 001 can still be found anyways. This one comes in at 58.5% ABV and has no color added and is also NCF’d. It’s a rich mahogany in the tasting glass and makes some seriously slick, oily legs when you spin it. I found this bottle online for just under $80 and I gotta say- that’s a damn good deal if you liked the regular 10 year old. The nose is heavily sherry influenced with chocolate and almonds leading the charge. There’s some red berry sweetness if you give it some time before moving on. It smells great. The palate again highlights a well made, sherry cask whisky that delivers with a bit more punch than the standard 10yo. There’s added depth with butterscotch candies, dark chocolate and honey sweetness rounding it out. The mouthfeel is a tad thick but it’s also kind of elegant- especially for a cask strength. The finish is long and rather hot with sherry and chocolate notes fading into bits of wood cask. It finishes a little harsh, but you have to expect that when the ABV is approaching 60%. Overall, I wasn’t a big fan when I first opened the bottle. It definitely needed some oxidation to calm it down to the point you can tell it’s bloodlines as Tamdhu. I felt the same way about the 10 year as I worked my way through that bottle, too. Patience will be well rewarded here. It’s a dynamite dram and kind of easy on the wallet as well. 4.25 stars. Cheers.

Bottle open several months, about 75% full. Served in a Glencairn glass, 1.5 oz pour, neat. I've been on a Islay kick the last month or two, and it felt good to come back to Speyside. A Sherry bomb, to boot! It does, however, continue the trend of my apparent affinity for barrel proof drams. The nose is ALL Sherry. Pure dessert. There is an oak hint, so there is some old-ish whisky here, but the core is probably 10-12 years old. Entry is sweet and smooth, especially for the ABV. Mouth feel is thick, full, and lush The profile starts with Sherry, then dried fruits lead way to walnuts, then a milk chocolate that morphs into dark chocolate. The chocolate profile is reminiscent of dried tobacco that is kindling. Finish warms up, with a lot of spice, and even some burn on the finish, although the burn didn't appear until near the end of the glass. It would be prudent to add a few drops of water to bring the ABV down to ~50%, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. TLDR: Complex, very approachable, and addictive. I am heartbroken I cannot get may more of this, and it's unknown when or if Batch Strength #4 will be available in my area. Pity, this is one of my favorites, and possibly the best bang-for-the-buck cask proof Sherry bombs on the market.

This was the final pour in our “Thank the Lord we don’t have to work tomorrow” tasting we had last night. There’s certainly a lot to love here, but it seemed a tad anticlimactic coming in on the heels of Talisker 18...but I digress. Sherry heads rejoice! This is a powerful sherry bomb, fully aged in fine sherry casks, and with all the usual suspects fighting for attention. You’re bound to find dates, waxy nuts (rimshot), raisins, but also a little smoky leather and parchment paper. It doesn’t drink like a cask strength drop, which can get one into trouble if you’re not careful. I hit it with 3-4 drops of water to find my sweet (literally in this case) spot. I had the same experience with batch 003, which I think I prefer slightly more over this one. Batch 002 was a little more aggressive with the sherry and the alcohol, while I felt that batch 003 had more fruity components and custard. Batch 004 is now available in Austin and I’m debating picking a bottle up. Price is a bit steep but is only gonna go up with the new tariffs...stay tuned. Cheers!

batch 3 Nez: sucré sur le sherry. C'est un CS et ça paraît au nez! Bouche: je m'attendais pas à ça... une douceur malgré le haut taux!!! Fraises confites, des oranges fraîches, une touche de cannelle et de gingembre. Frais et onctueux. je soupçonne un filtrage quelconque compte tenu de la quasi absence de gras. surtout que c'est un cask strength ! Finale: assez longue sur les épices. Overall: tres aromatiquement similaire au macallan no 2 mais version cask strength (et filtré?). Tres très bon et intense. Du sherry bomb a l'etat pur! il est plus doux que le Abunadh et le Classic cut mais question intensité aromatique, plus intense sur le sherry que le classic cut mais moins que le Abunadh. Bref, cest votre genre ou ce l'est pas. Si vous n'aimez pas Macallan ou Abunadh, ce nest pas pour vous. si au contraire vous etes fan de sherry bomb, cest définitivement pour vous! (et pour moi!) 95%

Hmm this is an interesting one. I was expecting the heavens to open and angels start singing with all the reviews I've seen so far but neither did. To be fair I had the '77 Benriach Portwood, Arbelour and Talisker 18, Martell Xo then this so maybe the higher level benchmark didn't help but I struggled to be dazzled. Water definately bought it to life a bit, biscuity velvety honey came through but nothing more spectacular than the 16yr Glen Moray I had earlier in the week. The reviews all refer to it as a sherry monster but I get none of that..maybe MoM mixed up the samples? :-). I note for the 10 year there seemed quite a bit of variation in reviews so maybe its that? 3.5 for now.