Tamnavulin Distillery

A relatively unknown workhorse distillery, Tamnavulin was founded by Invergordon Distillers in 1966. The name of the distillery comes from the Gaelic for ‘Mill on the Hill’ after a carding mill which once stood on the site of Tamnavulin. Located in the Glen of Livet at the foot of the

Cairngorm mountains, the distillery was built at the tiny village of Tomnavoulin in the Speyside region. The 1960s were a boom time in the whisky industry, with many new distilleries popping up around Scotland to supply spirits for blends. Tamnavulin’s appearance is also reminiscent of that time, with stark industrial buildings which are at odds with the picturesque surroundings.

Whyte & Mackay bought Invergordon in 1993, but they didn’t end up enjoying the distillery for long, mothballing Tamnavulin two years later. It stayed shut for more than a decade, and while it was closed White & Mackay underwent changes themselves. First the name was changed to JBB in ‘96, and then to Kyndal in 2001 after a £208 million buyout by management at the company. They would change the name back to Whyte & Mackay in 2003, making this a rather brief circle.

Aside from a few months production at the turn of the millennium Tamnavulin didn’t properly resume production until 2007 when United Spirits bought Whyte & Mackay. The year prior to this they had carried out refurbishments at the distillery which included replacing the three wash stills.

In 2014 the Whyte & Mackay was sold to the Philippines based company Emperador Inc. Not long after that, the first official single malt release from the distillery came out in 2016, the Tamnavulin Double Cask.

The distillery is equipped with an 11 ton mash tun, nine stainless steel washbacks, and six stills. The spirit stills at Tamnavulin are all equipped with purifiers, which helps ensure only the lightest vapours reach the condenser, while the wash stills are outfitted with subcoolers.

Water from the distillery comes from natural underground springs nearby which are filtered through the surrounding limestone. This creates a startlingly pure water ideal for whisky production. Tamnavulin has an annual production capacity of 4 million litres of spirits a year.

There are two core bottlings from Tamnavulin, the Double Cask and the Sherry Cask Edition, both released without age statements. The Double Cask was matured in American Oak an given a Sherry Cask finish. A rich and sweet whisky, this has aromas of apple, honey, and toffee. The palate contains flavours of vanilla and orchard fruits, along with a slight nuttiness. The Sherry Cask Edition has been finished in three different types of Oloroso Sherry casks for a complex layering of sweetness.