A Scottish whisky taking me to sunny places feels a bit contradictory. Generally Scottish booze has brought me to Scotland, which is not known for its sunshine. Although we’ve had more good than bad weather out there…

Tullibardine is a distillery of which I have never been enthusiastic. They have recently released a new range of distillery bottlings that I have not tried, but their previous range was average at best. They also released some weird wine casks over the years that don’t really work with me, which doesn’t really help.

Let’s see which sunny place they take me to.

Tullibardine 18 by the SMWS. Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
Very light and floral with quite a bit of barley. Malty with a hint of acetone. It has some vanilla but not enough to be run of the mill. Friendly hints of barley sugar but also a touch of vegetables and the smallest hint of lemon in the background.

Sip:
The palate is quite a bit sharper than I expected and has a warming quality to it. After a few seconds of swimming there suddenly is a huge blast of alcohol, very sharp. Then I get vanilla and lemon but mostly barley.

Swallow:
It’s a fairly short finish which quickly takes the vegetable direction.

It’s not a very special whisky, from my perspective. I like bourbon casks, but this refill hogshead feels a bit tired to me. The hints you usually get from the wood are held back, and instead of that you get vegetables and alcohol. The only sunny place this one took me to is our backyard, since I was there sipping it last Sunday.

Takes you to sunny places, Tullibardine, 18yo, 54.8%, 1990, Refill Hogshead, Scotch Malt Whisky Society.