Last Night's Tipple

Continuing with the theme from Saturday night, I had another pour of The Easy Drinking Whisky Company's The Rich Spicy One. You may recall that this is EDWC's attempt to create a big, sherried malt like Macallan, and it is largely composed of Tamdhu, which is another distillery owned by the Edrington Group, parent company of Macallan. I originally wasn't completely sold on this: it seemed a bit too Scotch-y and lacking in any finesse. The second time I had it, I liked it better. Last night, when I had my third pour of this bottle, I liked it even better. I don't know if this is a testament to the complexity of the whisky or the crappiness of my taste memory and the variability of my palate, but last night, I got a lot of sherry and vanilla, both of which I like. It was a very pleasant experience. Perhaps I will write something nominating this for Scotch of the year after my fourth dram.

Last Night's Tipple

You may recall that The Rich Spicy One is 50% Tamdhu aged in ex-Sherry butts and 10% Tamdhu aged in ex-Bourbon barrels. If I hadn't enjoyed The Rich Spicy One and if I didn't know what went into its blend, chances are that I would never have bought the single malt bottling of Tamdhu. It hasn't gotten very good reviews, and as much as I like to disparage the usefulness of reviews and ratings, I do read them and I am influenced by them. And then there's the matter of the price. It's less than $20 for a fifth, and that's out of line for a decent Scotch malt that's 10 years old. If something is too cheap, I tend to think that there's a reason for it. But I did enjoy The Rich Spicy One, and I knew that Tamdhu is owned by the Edrington Group, which doesn't have any stinkers in its portfolio, so I decided to give it a try.

Tamdhu is a rarity among Scotch distilleries in that all of the malt that they use is produced on-site. The production of the Saladin maltings attached to Tamdhu is so large, as a matter of fact, that it provides malt for a number of other distilleries (including Highland Park, another Edrington property) as well. The distillery's production is almost entirely used as a constituent of blends, primarily Edrington's Cutty Sark and Famous Grouse. The bad ratings notwithstanding, I like the Tamdhu single malt. It has a nice dollop of sherry over top of a malty, grainy core. There is no peat here, just fresh, clean malt. Refreshing and very tasty. Sometimes a bargain really is a bargain.

Last Night's Tipple

Another dram of The Rich Spicy One, a vatted malt in the sherried style from the Edrington Group's Easy Drinking Whisky Company. I was thinking about giving The Smooth Sweeter One a try (because, you know, I like smooth and sweet), but I thought that it would be profligate to buy a bottle of that before I finished this one off. And it will probably be a while before I finish this one off, not because I don't like it but rather because I have way too much whisk(e)y.

I liked this second try better than I did the first time. With some time in the glass, some of that Scotch-y aroma that I noted before blew off; and I was able to enjoy it in all its sherried goodness. I have read more than once that this whisky is "good but not very complex," but I don't really understand where that comes from. To me, complexity means that one's experience with a whisky will vary from sip to sip and that different aspects of its character will become apparent over time. That's what happened with this whisky, so, yes, I would say that it has complexity. That's more than I can say for other Scotches that I've tried that cost more than it. It's a good whisky and a good value.

Note to Ben: If you recall, one of the constituents of The Smokey Peaty One is Ledaig, which is Tobermory Distillery's peated malt. I have recently seen two different bottlings of this, a 10 year old that's apparently aged in ex-Bourbon casks for around $47 a fifth and a sherried version without an age statement (so probably less than 10 years old) for around $30. You might find the sherried version interesting, although it has not gotten very positive reviews.