Tamnavulin Sauvignon Blanc Cask
Tamnavulin on white wine casks, let's review!
Quite a lot of my reviewed whisky is of independent bottlers or covers a special edition. And I'm fully aware that not all are easily available for my readers.
Therefore I decided that from 2024 onwards, I try to review more easily available whiskies. Just like the one in this blog.
I did not buy it, to be honest. I received it as a gift on my birthday. But since I have a 'one out, one in' rule for my selection, I cannot open a bottle unless I finish one first.
I had to introduce this rule for myself because too many bottles were open. And, since too many open bottles means that the shelves with closed ones are also full (the same rule applies here as well), I was not allowed to buy any new ones!
When a spot opened recently on the 'open bottle shelve', I decided to open this one.
Not really knowing what to expect, I was a little hesitant. Wine casks make me nervous. To me, it is a hit or miss. Some are delivering delicious whiskies, others give some weird tannines to the whisky and make it a little sour or too bitter for my taste.
Since the whisky I just finished was one of my 'cooking' whiskies, a whisky I use in sauces or glazes or any recipe where the whisky will be heated, I thought to open this one. If I did not like it, it could be 'promoted' to cooking whisky.
I opened it on a Sunday evening, to be paired with my roasted ham in honey.
And believe it or not, it was quite a match.
So this will not be my next bottle of cooking whisky, and it deserves a place on my shelves. Let me explain:
The whisky was matured on a combination of American oak and Sauvignon Blanc casks. This edition was part of batch no 060808.
It was bottled at 40% and it is colored. This means some E150A was added to make sure all the batches have the same color.
So on the nose, the color can be described as a dark yellow, light amber, however, this color was created by the added coloring. A twirl in the glass leaves a thin ring with some small tears.
On the nose I get a full fresh bouquet. At first, maybe because of the white wine in the name, you get white wine. But then you realise you smell oak, fresh fruits, some oats and straw. And yes, there is some hint of the Sauvignon Blanc. You can almost taste the dry white wine without even taking a sip. A second whiff delivered a dusty threshing floor. and a hint of melon peel.
On the palate I get a hint of oak, some fresh apples, a slice of whole grain bread and some cane sugar. It starts with a flavour hinting at a dim apple juice, but the tannines take over during the sip en start the finish.
The finish is short and starts with a feeling of a dry tongue added with some leather, sweetened apples and pears and even some hay.
In this case, the wine casks delivered what I was looking for.
This bottle can be found at most bigger liquor stores and prices is between 30-35 euros.
