ralfy review 950 - Tamdhu 15yo @46%vol (2022) 

I fell in love with this 15 yr old. Great alternative to the old Glendronach and macallan. Too bad the price went from a very reasonable $90 to anywhere between 125-140 around my area.

There's a lot of talk about packaging of whiskys on this channel. Living in the midwest of the former 13 colonies the whisky from Scotland comes a long way. Bottles "clinking" together for 5000 miles would make for an awful clatter and probably some destruction of product. I know most people pull the bottle out of the box and throw it in the recycling but I think that's how it has to be. Less packaging is better. I think some is necessary. I'll give the Tamdhu a try if I get the chance. Thanks for the information ralfy.

Tamdhu 15 has jumped from $110 to $170 in Australia in the past 6 months...... ridiculous.

If you think Scotch Whiskey is expensive in the UK - try buying it at the other end of the planet - New Zealand.... Tamdhu 15yo is $150 plus $5 freight - that is 75.75 GB Pounds (plus freight). Us ordinary folks can only get a nice bottle once a week for our household. But we make sure we try different ones - Thanks for your efforts Ralfy - your analysis has saved us from making some expensive blunders over the years. Kia Kaha

I poured myself a dram of Tamdhu 15 tonight. As I was waiting for it to open up, I got a RU-vid notification: Ralfy 950 Tamdhu 15. Life’s good for now 👍

Selling for $105 in my country. Hardly a bargain. I envy Britts sometimes, but the notion passes rather quickly

I'm glad it's a sherried whisky this week, I wanted your take on Bunnahabhain charging £80 a bottle for their cask strength 12 year old this year. I don't care if it contained the tears of the virgin Mary, at basically twice the price of the standard 12 for a roughly 10% higher ABV it just feels like a joke at the customer's expense as they count their money all the way to the bank.

Thanks for the review Ralfy - Tamdhu 15 is a solid single malt. I don't agree that the word 'smooth' shouldn't and can't be used as an adjective to describe a good whisky. I know that 'smooth" is probably often a term used by whisky novices to describe whiskies that are "tolerable" to the untrained palate (i.e. stripped of flavour and bottled at 40%), but as you say Ralfy, we know better. To me, 'smooth' does not equate to weak, watery or without taste and complexity.

An excellent malt dear Ralfy which I thoroughly enjoy and is fair valued … for now as you correctly say. Kindest regards as always, ciao 👋 S.

The Tamdhu 15 was a nice one. Checks off the 3 criteria for an integrity malt. As per usual, the only gripe is the price at the LCBO.

For marketing (and to reduce packaging waste) distilleries should just spend more time on the design of the bottle and not the extra cardboard and bumf. If you have a bottle on a bar or a shelf it's that you are going to gravitate to not fancy packaging that is probably already in the bin.

I tried a younger Tamdhu (I forget which one) in a bar recently; it was good but not particularly memorable. This one sounds like it might be better. If I go to a bar or restaurant and find it on the whisky list, I'll give it a try. Speaking of Macallan, I saw some Macallan offerings on a whisky list at a restaurant yesterday. The 25-year was US$450 for a 2-ounce shot. The restaurant is in an affluent neighborhood in Orange County, California, so it makes sense that this would be there, as the customer base for it lives in the area. Older Macallan has become a status symbol for rich people. I wonder how many of the people who spend $450 for a shot of this stuff truly appreciate it. I'm sure some do, but I would be willing to bet that many are attracted to it more for the bragging rights than for the taste. I passed on the Macallan. I don't care how good it might be - nothing is worth that much. Instead, I had a nice glass of Austrian white wine for under $15, and I was perfectly happy with that. The weird thing about the whisky list at this restaurant is that, aside from a couple expensive Macallan offerings, the list consists entirely of the standard corporate stuff that can be found everywhere. If they are going to the trouble to acquire Macallan 25, I would expect to see some other uncommon or allocated whiskies on the menu too.

I would love to see Ralfy do some blind tastings, maybe along a pal or two

Completely agree with your comment on the cask strength versions of this. Was blown away by the flavour and the long lasting finish. Wish I’d discovered Tamdhu earlier.

I remember your last review of this whisky where you called it the feminine version of the great classic Glendronach 15 Revival. A lot has changed since then and I remember purchasing a bottle of Tamdhu 15 for $160 Canadian. I want to open this bottle on a special occasion. Cheers to you Ralfy for a lot of education, memories and whisky nostalgia.

I got burned by buying based on recommendations, Ralfy's as well. From now on, I will try a dram at a bar before throwing cash at purchasing a bottle.

Burns’ Night is 25 January, a bottle that lasts from now until then is expecting a lot!

> and the 'dhu' always means 'hill' I am terribly sorry to argue but 'dhu' means 'black', 'tom' means 'little hill'. Guess it was just a slip of the tongue. Hate to start my comments with this, because I love whisky, started learning Gaidhlig a couple of years ago, and I love your videos.

Hi Ralfy, thanks for the review. One thing I have noticed over the time by trying and buying different single malts is that non-chill filtered recently doesn’t mean anything. I have over 100 bottles single malt Scotch whisky and simply most of them never go cloudy or have any particles. For me single malts like Springbank, Craigellachie or GlenGoyne 25 are non-chill filtered because not only they often go cloudy either in the bottle or the glass but there’s lots of particles at the bottom of bottles. I’m not sure how’s the process but I’m sure many distilleries have found other ways around it.

I am totally amazed from 12y Douglas Laing Tamdhu, will try this too for sure, tnx Ralfy!

As per one source, Tamdhu 12 won the gold medal at the 2020 World Spirits Competition in San Francisco.

ralfy, sounds very good. Have been thinking about their Batch Strength bottlings but never see around town. Looks like my first holiday bottle will be the Caledonia 12 year from Edradour in 10 days. Cheers!

£83 off Amazon...no way I'm ever buying this at that ridiculous price....£50 approx for 15 yr olds in my opinion...

Picked up the 12yo at M&S a couple of years ago. £28. Fantastic value. Then I've noticed the price edging it's way up and more expensive than Glenallachie 15yo, Benrinnes 15yo and other of similar calibre. Right now if I was looking buying this I would by pass this and go for an indie Tamdhu from "Cut your Wolf Loose" from Seb Woolf. Similar price. Good age and the full cask strength!!!!

Exactly ralfy " Basic barrier filtered" is also my preferred method, to spend so much time and effort creating a fine dram and then "Filter" it away is to me illogical wasteful and ultimately an incomplete product for the consumer.

We can find that in Toronto once in a while .Another bottle of unobtanium in Toronto.We had the Tamdhu batch strength at $129 cdn a bottle .sold out

Thanks for sharing I just finished my bottle Sunday 😢at first not over keen but past the shoulder improvement was really noticeable after 3 years wonderful would agree adding water not an improvement my brother in law is a McAllen sherry fan I think would make a good gift at Christmas keep up the good work there you go now you know 🍻

Unfortunately, Tamdhu (and Glengoyne too) is overpriced in Bulgaria. The 15 yo will have me part with roughly 80 £ by current exchange rates. Just for comparison, this is almost 80% over the price of Glenallachie 10 CS and Glenallachie 15, and little over the price of AnCnoc 18. I haven't seen the 18 yo Tamdhu over here, but the prices I see in Western European online shops are plain absurd. I just cant help but thinking that "Ian McLeod Distilleries" is on to "premiumize" Tamdhu and Glengoyne and target Macallan buyers which I am absolutely not. Cheers!

Hi Ralfy! Here we in Brazil 🇧🇷 in this season we are really looking for the opposite of that! We are looking some single malt that we can enjoy in our summer! Cheers mate

At €122 here for the 15yo, I'll be walking on by.

At its current NZ price point $150 (£75) I think this is simply the best whisky on the market. Very nuanced and layered delivers such a deep taste experience. I fear for the direction their prices are going but right now this is utter magic and great value.

Visited Scotland for the Tattoo and bought a couple of new to me malts to bring home to California. "Good stuff" per the sales clerk at the Whisky Shop on Vicoria street. I had asked her for something I'd never seen on the US market. Opened one the other day; a single cask, 13 year old from Fettercairn. Very nice to my amateur palate with a rich bouquet, great mouth feel and a full finish. Talking about a fruit bomb Christmas cake, this is one! If possible down the road can you tell a bit about Fettercairn. I'd never heard of it.

Hey, I just noticed this one at my local Total Wine. I was meaning to look up any reviews, so great timing. A bit pricey, but I may give it a try.

Sweet Nectar from the Gods

Hi ralfy just tried the new arran 18 absolutely brilliant full Christmas in a bottle at £90 it's got to be a Xmas present to yourself

Greetings from Holland, one question: there are 2 revieuws from you Ralphy about this bottle of 15 years old but different malt marks(87 and 90) .Whats the different?

Around £75 for this. Overpriced. Recently saw an Old Malt Cask bottling of Tamdhu for the same price but it was 50% abv and a single cask

Best christmas notes are in benromach 10 and benromach 15 ;)

I am a tad chagrinned. My whisky glasses arrived from Amazon today. I was kinda jazzed about getting them cause all I had previously were tumblers. I was having to cup my hands over the top and sniff through the opening between to actually get any nose at all. So I pour my first wee dram tonight and ... my nose is bigger than I realized. But I can just get a nice sip and that's the ideal, right?

One of my favorites.

Hiho Ralfy, thanks for giving us an alternative to Macallan. I am not spending any money von Macallan nowadays. Isn't "Dhu" the gaelic word for dark? Cheers from a pat-pal in Germany

Those boxes are a nightmare to pack cos the lid wont go on unless the bottles squared up. So they have to stop the line alot for the packers. No design for excellence there , when you design a product you should design it so its easy as possible to make.

I'm not a Gaelic speaker; in fact I know next to nothing about the language. I do believe however that dhu means black. This sounds like a worthy dram. I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

Ralfy is correct it is filtered, not chill filtered.

Not had the 15 but I did prefer Glengoyne 12 over the Tamdhu 12.

It was delocious but not really something I havent tasted before. I was sipping it side to side to Springbank 10 and Tobermory 12 and their characters captivated me much much more at this point. Maybe when Ill come to Tamdhu 15, I will indeed discover something new

T’is vs Glendronach 15? This is $130 in US vs GD 15 $85. Not taking $ in consideration. Ty for all your reviews as I go deeper in the SM rabbit hole.🤪

Keeping it real Ralfy 🙂👍.

Apparently, October is "Ralfy Raids My Liquor Cabinet" month! I was thoroughly impressed with the Tamdhu 10 year, which I had dubbed "Macallan Junior". Sadly, I think the 10 year was discontinued in favor of the 12 year. The 12 is also good, but I preferred the less expensive and slightly more robust 10 year. The 12 isn't quite the same. It's tamed a bit. Then again, even Macallan isn't quite Macallan anymore, so... what the hey. If you like Macallan, Tamdhu's range is absolutely worth it. A fair malt mark here. I bet Ralfy would bump it up another digit if it showed more scotch mist. Sounds right. I haven't yet tried the cask strength Tamdhus, and I don't know why. There was once a cask strength Macallan many moons ago. My friends and I shared it and enjoyed it together, because that's what you did when you found a fun product. We FOOLS! We DRANK IT! And now, if you can find that discontinued bottle anywhere on the secondary market, it's multiple thousands of dollars. It was good, but sweet fancy Moses, six thousand dollars? No drink is that good. (And now I know what a six thousand dollar scotch tastes like. It tastes like scotch.) Anyway... now that I have thoroughly digressed... With Tamdhu and Macallan having such similar profiles, I wonder if the cask strength Tamdhus are in the same ballpark as that old cask strength Macallan that has gone full Unobtainium. It's probably well worth the gamble.

Nice dram but here in Greece you can buy at the same price the Arran 18! So there is no actual dilemma in my opinion...😊

Would Tamdhu's process of filtering the wort until its clear be the reason there is so little Scotch mist and make it seem its been extensively filtered post maturation? Doesn't mean they aren't also filtering it afterward but I wonder if doing that early in the process is sort of a loophole/technicality. Either way this stuff is delicious. As always, thanks for the review Ralfy.

I am so curious about the 18 year old. However it IS expensive. Upwards of $200 (shipping included). Don’t see many reviews on that one. Ralfy is allegedly staying away from it due to the price. That said, the 15 is still good value even at $130-140.

Recently, I purchased a bottle of Penderyn (Madeira cask) single malt. I know you did a review but that was over a decade ago. I was wondering if by any chance you could review it again sometime in the future? It has greatly improved since you last reviewed it, and in my opinion and has become a marvellous and complex malt 👍

"Partially, physically, chemically bond" the flavour compounds is quite contradictory from the chemical perspective...

Ralfy, I thought Burn's night was on the 25th of January...

I’ve seen Tamdhu 15 here in the US but it’s $140. 😳 Ouch. BTW- there’s no reason for Ralfy to be shadow-banned. That’s crazy.

Its nice to see distilleries making good OB's that aren't just Springbank.

The Tamdhu website says un-chillfiltered.

Was searching for reviews on my first purchases of single malt lately. 'Smooth' is their favorite word. Dummies. Balvenie Double Wood even puts it on the front label on the bottle. 😐

Hi Ralfy. Sorry to go off topic but I can't find information on why the Dalmore 18 is now either out of stock or going for GBP250? Where I am it's going for over R6000 (GBP300) in some places and it has nothing to do with duties. Stockists I've spoken to say it was a huge price increase others say a shortage? Anyway, love your programmes!!

Ralfy, what whisky would you gift a disgraced former Prime Minister that thought enough of themselves to think they could just swan back in the door as soon as the replacement shits the bed but finds himself locked outside and shouting through the letterbox?

Literally looking for Xmas gifts!

Seeing this retailing for between £75-85. Waaaaaay too expensive for a 15 year old Whisky.

Is this the same bottle you reviewed in 2019?

I really love your great explanations and reviews. You are so knowledgeable and frank. I will try this. I love Bourbon (and rum). Question: Are the flavors that you described (clove, cinnamon, allspice, anise, citrus, etc.) infused into whiskey and other alcohols, or are they simply a byproduct of the distillation method? I understand how a barrel that held sherry would add sherry notes or how different oaks might add their distinctive flavor but what creates all the other kinds of flavors? I would love to know. Thank you!

Just a quick question Ralfy, do we know if they have started using the Saladin boxes again? I remember going as a kid, if memory serves they were on an early version of the Whisky Trail and remember the Saladin boxes. The older biscuity Tamdhu (were they using Bourbon casks?)was my late father's dram of choice when he could get it - which was hard in the West Riding in the 70s, it's a different malt these days, but I feel better than I remember my juvenile misappropriated drams.

I'm so sorry that in my market scotch whisky doesn't have too many followers, and I'm so sorry that my market will not see any of this seasonal boom that other markets will be seeing until Christmas.

Ralfy you should try Currach Irish whiskey and As we get it Scotch whisky

the Tamdhu 15 is around $160 us dollars near me. seems a bit high, no?

Burns night in February?

0/10 for your Gaelic homework Ralfy.

Wow. I just researched shadow banning and woeee. Maybe you need to start your own platform..ralfytube? With every passing day, we are getting closer and closer to 1984.

I just buy what I want year round.. giving gifts ..best to avoid whisky.... Utube cannot be trusted....

Ralfy I think you secretly enjoy Macallan but the brand isn’t aligned with the bulk of your viewership so you deem it appropriate to trash Macallan on your videos. Just my opinion. Go visit their distillery now. It’s a jewel amongst the Scotch distilleries. Try the Macallan Oscuro or Reflexion. These whiskies blow away anything out there, for the money. Price shouldn’t be the only reason to trash Macallan. Consider it a Scottish treasure. Just my two cents and I will stick to it

I bought a couple of the 12 year olds, 43% ABV in 2020. I remember it being quite different than anything I have had before but interesting enough to hang on to the 2nd bottle for another time that I wanted something different. We don't have the 15 year old here but there are 2 of the Batch Strength still around. Have you had that one and any thoughts on it?