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32 Comments
I'm still waiting for Ralfy's opinion on Wireworks whisky from White Peak Distillery in Derbyshire.
I have their Stout casked expression and am sitting on their very special Amarone cask…. as yet, unopened.
Fascinating distillery, amazing building and dripping with integrity.
I'm pretty sure Tamnavulin was the worst whisky that I ever had.
Jello shots. Ralphy, please review jello shots. They could be made with whisky.
I like these videos where you look at the lower end of the market
That price point reminds me of the good old days around 2007-2008 when the local spirits retailer had a good supply of the very nice Jon Mark & Robbo malt blends for $26.00 US. They too were only bottled at 40%, but were still quite tasty and beat a lot of standard single malts for nose and flavor because they were obviously sourcing good whisky to make their product. Sadly, JMR folded after only a couple of years and I haven't seen any since about 2009.
Crazy considering I just got a glengoyne 12 for a tenner more – ridiculous jump up in quality
Just add 30% of Laphroig 10 cask strength and you'll get a 300 pounds cabernet sauvignon cask official bottling Laphroig….but first as a test use it like water to dilute the Laphroig 10 cask strenght and then tell me about it…….there you go……now you now.
What happened to the colour between the previous pour and the current one? I didn't know that colour from a cask finish could fade. I've never tried this, but it retails in my market for around $65-70 NZD (approx. 30-32 pounds). Cheers!
I love Tamnavulins, had this one, but also their lovely sherry cask edition.
Great value for money!
Great review, now I now Im gonna awoid all the cheap Tamnavulin here in Sweden. Ive been had many discounted good whisky now sherry peated that im happy with from Arran and Ardnamurchan that I knew was good stuff thanks to you.
french wines are described by region (e.g. Bourdeau) rather than grape variety
I have always shied away from Tamnavulin and Singleton due to the reviews I've read on them.
Having already had a really flat bottle of Bunnahabhain 12 and a poor bottle of Ardbeg Uigeadail which was all semi-flat sherry and no peat, I am in no mood to even attempt to jump in on bad quality low cost bottles. It is bad enough when you get a bad batch of well established distilleries.
Yes, these others may be cheaper, but if I am going to go cheap, my bottles are going to be ones like Arran 10, Ardbeg Wee Beastie, and Deanston 12. At least I know they will still taste good.
Thanks Ralfy, but I'll pay a little extra for 46%🥃 NCF & no colour added as you all drummed into us, so mission accomplished Sir😇
I guessed that you would give it 75. It’s hard to reconcile and normalize all these different scoring systems so I generally look at each reviewer independently and consider the score relative to their average or typical score. In this case, Tamnavulin is solid no way. Regarding your opinion of Ledaig Rioja I have also heard extremely good things about the Bordeaux finish AND the Bruichladdich Micro-provenance series. I’m not a huge wine finish person but if the base distillate is attractive I’ll certainly give it a go. Cheers
Thank you Ralfy, for another scrupulous whisky review.
A thing I'd like to add here is related to the "short finish" that you've mentioned.
In my humble opinion, it's actually not that short as it sometimes happens to other scotches, like Glenfiddich or Glen Moray. What I'm able to detect here is clear winery sulfurness and also acidity of of a deep berry tea, both last pretty enough to enjoy them.
I think, this red wine cask stands apart from other modern Tamnavulin editions and certainly worth to try, especially with a good seasonal discount.
You see, this is what really annoys me. Tamnavulin 12 was one of the single malts which really impressed me back in the early 1990s when I was just getting serious about Whisky. It was 100% Refill Ex-Bourbon barrel matured, it was clean, fresh, light, honeydew melon, honey, lemon grass, floral and delicious malty biscuits. I first drunk it whilst on my very first Speyside tour and after visiting six distilleries with a friend, we declared the Tamnavulin 12 our favourite.
It was honest Speyside whisky. When it was mothballed in 1995, I went round buying up as many bottles as I could and even today, I still have a few bottles left, one open. I was delighted when they reopened the distillery in 2007. However, the owners have no confidence in their own spirit and have never bottled Tamnavulin in its natural form, but instead only release it with a finish in some exotic wine cask, which in my opinion, destroys the Tamnavulin character, depriving us of the experience of sipping a true Speyside classic. Ex-Bourbon Independent bottles of Tamnavulin are also as rare as hen's teeth.
Hey Ralfy, it could be a topic for fitter philosophy: Is a bargain a bargain or just a low price for a low quality product? If we try to save money running after bargains for low quality products we are in a sweet honey trap that shows up vinegar in the end. For some people it may be okay but if you are a little bit further on the journey you let it go this „bargain“.
Would be interesting to know what TamnaVulin means in Serbian language. Tamna means Dark, while Vulin is a surname, diminutive of Wolf, kind of DarkLittleWolf.
LagaVulin, Laga diminutive of Lie, so LittleLieLittleWolf.
I have been looking at these (mostly because of the price) but due to the "low" abv never made the purchase. Thanks for confirming my suspicions 😁
I have a bottle of their Tempranillo finished single malt. Makes a good early step (after a Fiddich 12) for someone starting the single malt journey. But, too tame for anyone who has already travelled a few miles down that road.
So glad i still have a bottle of Tamnavulin that i bought some 30 years ago. An old Signatory vintage, 17 yo, distilled 1978, matured in a pale oloroso butt, bottled at 59,6%…. Too bad Ralfy won't do reviews of what viewers would send in. I think he would like this one….
I found this one a little too metallic for my taste. With Loch Lomond and Ledaigs wine finishes at a similar price, I'll stick to those.
Also Ralfy, while I agree that a name on the bottle does increase the price, I really want more openness and integrity from the whisky world. I've a couple stellar Caol Ilas aged in Chateau Latour barrels. I'm glad Loch Lomond and Ledaig specify it's Rioja and Deanston's clear about using bordeaux cask. That says a lot more than just red/white wine finished. And even then, they're just types of wine, there's nothing said about the quality of the wine, nor the barrels.
Whether it's whisky or wine people get phycology anchored to 2 things, price and age, neither is a logical metric of quality but it's a learning process
Hello Ralfy,
This Bottle is on sale regulary for 24€ without Discount here in Germany. 😅
So i guess your Discount was only Marketing, which you probably already knew 😅.
Get a bottle of Aldi or Lidle single malt for £18 and a a drop of cheap red wine and viola!!
Remember when our pound was nearly 2 dollars worth…. this country is fkd
Cheers Ralfy 🥃
Look at this Dacia, it's basic and does the job.
Look at this BMW, its high quality and is better. It's also 3x more expensive.
This is basically what's been said here.
Kavalan Solist French Wine Cask is a very good dram, but expensive.
So you’re saying that this won’t replace my Australian Shiraz Longrow Red? 😏 Sláinte, Ralfy!
These Tamnavulins are quite ubiquitous around spanish and italian supermarkets under the 30 euro markup where basic malts compete. They must be distilling quite an amount of whisky to fill all those bottles, on Caol Ila volumes I'd say.
Does anybody know Tamnavulin's capacity?
I'm curious as to Ralfy's scoring. What quantifies a 50 or 60 score? Total drain pour swill? Does it have to contain arsenic?