Tamdhu 40 Year Old 1971 The MacPhail’s Collection

The MacPhail's Collection is, as you can no doubt guess, a label of independent bottler Gordon & Macphail. One of the bottlings in that excellent series is this Tamdhu from 1971. Mind you, this was bottled more than a decade ago. I recently received a visit from Joren Nuyts – the strong man behind the new Belgian label The Roots – who gave me a sample as a gift, which I accepted in gratitude. A 40-year-old Tamdhu... you don't see that every day. Delicious! Ad rem, I know, but I've only just poured it and the room fills with a delicious aroma of tropical fruit, stewed pears, caramel and beautiful notes of the oak. A mix of freshly sawn planks and molded wood. Really great nose. The body is fine, although rather soft (but not watery!). The oak now even comes first and gives it a bitterness for a while, before the fruit can show itself. Again the pears, maybe even some apples went into the stew, but especially something of apricots and coconut. And some nuts. Menthol? Becomes sweeter from the second sip. The finish is rather short but well seasoned on cloves and nutmeg. Some oak and – surprising! – some milk chocolate with hazelnuts on the deathbed. The nose was outstanding, the taste very much okay (but, admittedly, couldn't quite fulfill the promise of the nose). It seems younger than it’s 40 years, honestly (not that that has to be a problem). All in all a fantastic Tamdhu! Nowadays you pay about 725 EUR for a bottle, so I am very grateful to Joren for the sample.

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