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KWM 2022 Whisky Calendar Day 12: The Tullibardine 225 Sauternes Cask Finish

Posted on December 8, 2023

BONUS CONTENT: Read Andrew's write-up on two of our many BenRiach KWM Casks here!

by Evan

Day number Twelve is upon us, which means were are nearing the halfway point on our 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar journey. Let's celebrate with something smooth: The Tullibardine 225 Sauternes Cask Finish!

Tullibardine Distillery is located in the southern Highland town of Blackford, just north of Perth. Its nearest neighbours include the Glenturret Distillery which is a 25-minute drive north on the A822 and also Deanston Distillery which is a 20-minute drive west on the A9. The distillery sits on the site that once held a series of breweries over the past 500 years. In 1488 King James IV, then aged 14, paid a visit to a brewery in Blackford to purchase beer for his coronation.

Tullibardine Distillery itself was founded in 1949, making it the first distillery to be built in Scotland after the end of World War II. The distillery was sold by architect and Founder William Delme-Evans in 1953 to a company named Brodie-Hepburn LTD. That company was purchased by Invergordon distillers in 1971, which in turn was purchased by Whyte & Mackay in 1993. The distillery had been operating for four and a half decades but was mothballed in 1994. Tullibardine remained closed and silent until it was purchased along with some ageing stock in 2003 by an independent consortium of owners. It was quickly revised and began production once more while much of the older stock was released in vintages. If you have been into whisky for more than a decade, you might remember seeing various vintages including 1988, 1993 and 1994 on the shelves until around 2011 when the distillery once again changed hands: this time to current owner Picard Vins & Spiritueux.

As Andrew mentioned in his blog post on the Tullibardine KWM Cask from 14 years ago, the ownership change has had both ups and downs. The purchase by Picard hopefully allowed the initial investors that revived the distillery to turn a profit while also offering long-term financial stability to the distillery and its employees. From a whisky geeks perspective though, hindsight shows us that it did coincide with the elimination of some of the more interesting casks that Tullibardine had been releasing and led to a more consistent but possibly less exciting lineup that has not changed much in the past decade.

It is worth noting that the vintage cask and batch series that was around before the Picard Vins & Spiritueux buyout of the distillery was likely not sustainable: there would have been a finite amount of old casks in the warehouse to hold over the distillery until they would have had stock to release an official 10-Year-Old or the like.

If you have been following the Scotch Whisky scene for more than a decade, you might recall that Bruichladdich Distillery was in a similar situation for a while. Bruichladdich was revived in the year 2000 by a group of investors after the distillery was mostly silent except for some sporadic production over the previous half-decade. During the time after being re-opened, Bruichladdich released a massive amount of special editions and vintage bottles on an even grander scale than Tullibardine was accomplishing at the time. Bruichladdich’s insane amount of releases seemed to dry up around the time when they were purchased by Remy Cointreau in 2012.

Neither ‘Laddie nor Tullie’ could have continued these old whisky releases indefinitely. It is funny how both distilleries were purchased by French companies, and both have fans that remember a heyday of releases before the respective buyouts. I would bet that neither had a vast amount of old stock left in warehouses at the time they were purchased. The good news in both cases is that said French companies have kept the lights on at the distilleries operating. Both Tullibardine and Bruichladdich continue to operate to this day, with seemingly no worry of shutting down any time soon.

Back to Tullibardine specifically: Picard Vins & Spiritueux did a complete relaunch of Tullibardine's whisky line in 2013 that remains mostly unchanged to now. The core of the range consists of four no-age statement bottles: The Sovereign which is matured in first-fill ex-Bourbon casks, and three cask finish expressions that take their names from the size of the cask they were finished in as well as what was held in the cask previously. The Tullibardine 225 that we are tasting today, which is finished in 225-litre ex-Sauternes casks, the 228 which is finished in 228-litre ex-Burgundy red wine casks, and the 500 which is finished in 500-litre ex-Sherry butts. Over the past four or five years, a regular 15-Year-Old expression and limited edition runs under the moniker The Murray has joined this lineup. This may not be as exciting as us whisky geeks getting 15 and 20+ year-old limited vintage releases, but such is the price of progress I suppose…

Regardless, we are here to taste the Tullibardine 225 Sauternes Cask Finish that is in front of us, and the good news on this is it shows us what Tullibardine can produce right now whisky-wise, not something distilled in a bygone era that cannot be reproduced. Shall we give it a go?

Tullibardine 225 Sauternes - 43%

Full-size bottles are available here

Tullibardine has three wood finishes, each of them starts with the Sovereign as a base and then uses a wine cask for finishing. For about 12 months, Tullibardine Sovereign has been finished off in Chateau Suduiraut Sauternes Casks, which are 225 litres in size. The resulting whisky is bottled at 43%.

Evan’s Tasting Note

Nose: A twist of lemon peel and some pine sap plus honey. Wood spices, fresh malt, vanilla pods, sponge cake, and ginger tea are also in the mix.

Palate: Creamy a spicy upon hitting the tongue with notes of almond paste, lemon curd, more honey, poached pear slices, and more ginger.

Finish: Creamy and nutty with apple and pear notes and a fading spiciness.

Comment: This is a well-put-together cask finish. The Sauternes casks add dimension to Tullibardine’s malt-driven style.

Another juicy dram – this will be fun to side by side with yesterday’s Bouitique-y Speyside in the recap tasting. I prefer the Speyside thus far, but the creaminess of this Tullibardine is intriguing. Will we have more unpeated and fruit-forward whisky to taste tomorrow? See you at Door Number Thirteen!

Cheers,
Evan
evan@kensingtonwinemarket.com
Twitter and Instagram: @sagelikefool

This entry was posted in Whisky, Whisky Calendars, KWM Whisky Calendar 2022

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