Tamdhu – Cigar Malt Release No.2 (70cl, 53.8%)

Tamdhu – Cigar Malt Release No.2 is a whisky from Tamdhu (Speyside). Bottled at 53.8% ABV, 70cl. 1987 was the year in which Tamdhu came into this world when it was built by a consortium of blenders headed by William Grant who was both a director of Highland Distillers and, handily enough, on the board of the Elgin bank. Highland Distillers (now Edrington) purchased the distillery outright in 1899, but like many sites it had a rocky time, closing from 1927 to 1948. Soon after its reopening, the old floor maltings were replaced with 10 Saladin boxes, each capable of holding 22 tons of malt. This would become the last site in Scotland to retain this method of malting and was one of the few distilleries in the modern era to malt all of its own requirements (the others being Springbank, Glen Ord). As well as its own needs, it supplied all of the malt for Glenrothes and the unpeated malt component for Highland Park. It is for blends that Tamdhu has dutifully made spirit for most of its life. Now owned by Ian Macleod Distillers since 2007, there has been a refocus on this under-appreciated single malt that has played an important part for so long in such best selling blends such as