Tullibardine The Murray Chateauneuf-du-Pape Finish

In 2016, Tullibardine launched their so-called Marquess Collection, in honor of Lord William Murray, the marquess of Tullibardine. In this case, it’s a whisky from 2005 that – after a regular maturation – kissed the inside of a nice wine cask from the famous Châteauneuf-du-Pape region. It appeared in 2018, so it matured for some 12 years. Next to some summery fruit, the nose offers a very candy-like note of gummi bears and citric acid sweets. The fruit – in the guise of mango and mandarin – has a hard time shining through, but that does not make this nose any less pleasant. But I must confess that I hardly find any notes of the wine cask, bar a somewhat drying touch in the back. The arrival is oily and quite feisty. Ginger and chili peppers precede the sweet fruit. I do get some wine notes now. It gives the malt a dry, bittersweet touch – which I like – that counter foots the candy-like sweetness enough. Add some oak and you have a quite balanced malt. The second sip offers more sweet and sour notes, which I translate into ‘the cask has put its foot down’. But it works. The finish is fairly long, sweet and sour with spices. Quite an interesting dram and with a price tag of around 50 EUR, this deserves a spot in my cabinet.

Find where to buy Tullibardine whisky