Tamnavulin 28 Year Old 1988 A.D. Rattray

For my thirteenth encounter with this distillery, I selected a 28 years old Tamnavulin that was distilled in 1988 and bottled at cask strength in 2016 by A.D. Rattray. It’s not easy to find official Tamnavulin. It’s a young workhorse (only founded in 1966) for the blenders, mostly White & Mackay. They own the distillery, by the way.

The nose is fairly sweet on Jonagold apples and chamomile tea, straw and vanilla custard, but quite ‘silent’ if you know what I mean. Not outspoken at all and rather docile. And after a few moments it smells like flowers that were left in a cardboard box.

It’s a lot less sweet on the palate, pretty peppery and somewhat unpleasantly sharp. Green grapes, the apples again, but also wet woot and bitter tea leaves. Some ginger, but too much wood at the same time.

The bitter tannins continue in the finish, followed by chamomile tea that was left unattended and again that floral note.

Not my cuppa. This one should have been blended away, sorry.

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