love whisky, and i love whiskies with interesting story and history behind them even more! The Tweeddale blend is such a one. So before diving into the nose,palate it’s just appropriate to tell it’s story. I’ve heard great things about the whisky,but only after sampling it and doing some research i heard about the extraordinary story behind it…
It all begins with Alasdair’s Grandfather Richard day (Alasdair is the guy behind this blend). Richard Day was born in 1880 at the Lees Stables in Coldstream, where his father James Day was the Stud Groom. He left school at the age of 15 to work as the office boy for J & A Davidson who owned the Coldstream Brewery, the Red Lion Public house and a Licensed Grocers in Duke Street. J&A grocers like many other Licensed Grocers of the time also blended Scotch Whisky, one of these was the Tweeddale blend.
Richard took over the grocers a few years later, and the establishment bore his name “Richard Day”, where he continued to blend Scotch Whisky and Rum up until the start of the 2nd World War when production had to stop, and was not to be reinitiated until…. his great grandson Alasdair found his great grandfather’s “Cellar Book”, in which in addition to accounts, he also found the recipe for blending the Tweeddale blend from 1899 to 1916. Richard died in 1965 the same year Alasdair was born…. when Alasdair grew up he established Stonedean Limited to recreate THE Tweeddale blend using the recipes in the “Cellar Book”.
Quite a story isn’t it? Now let’s see how this old blended recipe is.
Nose: Quite a light nose, starting with some nutmeg and cloves, off to malt cereals, dried fruit (sultanas) and a wee bit of peat.
Palate: Sweet and creamy, with malt cereals, dried fruit, spicy zing (ginger) cutting through the sweetness. Vanilla and nuttiness very well mixed. A lovely palate, mouth coating and oily.
Finish : sultanas give their last performance, as well as woody dryness, and a wee bit of smoke is also present. very well made. Balanced, and mouth-watering
Bottm line:
A very good blend indeed. As it happens this recipe is actually excellent, and it’s also exciting to be able to drink a blend people were drinking more than a 100 year ago. A piece of history, and a lovely dram!
@jdcook : well, I never had the "old" blend ;) one would need to judge it against the new... I guess that it will be a tad different, since the malts / grains profile has also changed in the last 100 or so years....
Having a bit of history can be a two0edged sword. If a dram is good, then that history makes it taste just that much better. When it is a bit disappointing, then it feels worse, like it hasn't lived up to it pedigree! Glad this one seems to be the former!