On Saturday night I poured the last dram I had left in my Tamdhu 10 bottle.

It was a bit of a moment for me.

Tamdhu 10 had been one of the real ‘gateway whiskies’ for me and there’s a very nice whisky story with it.

In my early twenties when I wanted to like whisky, I would drink Glenmorangie 10 with a couple of ice cubes and a wee drop of water.

Then I moved on to Auchentoshan American Oak with a couple of ice cubes, I felt more comfortable without needing to add any water.

I wasn’t always a ‘sherry tart’!

That was until my first ever visit to Scotch at the Balmoral. This would have been around late 2016.

I had started deep diving into whisky a bit at this point, and had heard about the wonders of Billy Walker at BenRiach and GlenDronach. So I asked for a BenRiach 12.

When the person serving me came back he asked “are you Graeme Kilgour?”.

I was out for drinks with my ex-current girlfriend at the time, so being asked this in the salubrious surroundings of Scotch at the Balmoral was a lovely ego boost.

However, the guy who had asked, me went on to explain that we had gone to the same school and he was a few years younger than me. It was Chuck Kerr!

We chatted for a bit, and then he went back to work and I went back to my dram.

When he asked me what I wanted next, I asked him to pick something for me along the lines of what I’d just had.

He returned with a Tamdhu 10.

When you’re at Scotch, they put the bottle you’re drinking on the table while you enjoy the dram.

Something completely clicked with me.

The bottle shape was the first thing. It doesn’t look like a whisky bottle should look. The font of the logo on the label instantly appeals to me for some reason.

And then there’s the dark ‘broon liquid’.

Arthur Motley spoke on this week’s podcast about the whisky drinkers journey and how the first real step is the moment we can distinguish the big flavours like smoke or sherry.

I was able to sit there and clearly see what sherry can do to a dram. The colour, the smell, the flavour and the aftertaste.

I was hooked.

I Googled how to get a bottle and bought one there and then. It was only £35 for a bottle back then.

This was now my new favourite whisky.

This was also the first time I was drinking a dram that wasn’t exactly a readily available supermarket dram.

I started to feel like a connoisseur.

I felt like I was in a little gang of people who knew something that other people didn’t. I would ask other guys who were whisky drinkers if they’d ever had a Tamdhu.

If they hadn’t it gave me a chance to wax lyrical about how amazing it was. And if they had, then we would connect even more on how good it is.

Then I got the news that Tamdhu were discontinuing the 10 and putting their focus into the 12 year old.

I felt heartbroken.

I rushed online and bought some reserves as soon as I could. I ended up with 6 bottles of Tamdhu 10 sitting in my cupboard.

I gifted a bottle to my brother who isn’t the biggest whisky drinker. He once asked me to pick him a dram and I gave him a Tamdhu 10 which he loved. It was a nice moment to select something for someone and bond a little bit over it.

I took a bottle away with me for a trip with some friends. I opened a bottle one new years eve, I had a bottle in the house open for hoose drams and I used the best part of a bottle for Ross Barr’s stag do.

I was down to my last bottle I had open in the house.

Since 2016 and starting the podcast, I’ve been fortunate to try some incredible whiskies, including some amazing Tamdhu releases.

I’m 100% guilty of forgetting my ‘whisky roots’ and bypassing core release drams for something a bit more interesting and exciting.

I’ve found a love for peat and smokey whiskies, I love exploring the Indies and trying ‘cool’ whisky.

I’ve even fallen off the sherry waggon as I’ve mentioned a few times recently and I’m all about the bourbon right now.

But I am trying to work my way back. Just like Cody Reynolds said I would.

And this weekend while staying at my parents, I found the last remaining drops of the last Tamdhu 10 I have.

There was less than 3 healthy measures left in it so I decided it was time to see it off.

I’ve since revisited the Glenmorangie 10s and Auchentoshan American Oak, hoping to still be taken in. In all honesty, they feel flat, soft and very underwhelming. I’ve become used to whisky, I like a bit of spice and complexity now and I just don’t get that from them.

So I wasn’t expecting much from the Tamdhu 10 at 40% abv.

I was wrong, and I’m so happy I was.

It was exactly what I wanted it to be; sweet, smooth, fruity and just really really really nice.

It felt punchier than 40% which might be the spice from the sherry. I loved it. It wasn’t a chewy sherry bomb, but it made my mouth feel great.

The first dram didn’t last long and I had to force myself to slow down. It was going down like juice and I didn’t want it to end.

But alas, it was time to say a final farewell to last drops and head to bed.

My current wife will say otherwise, but I am an old romantic at heart.

I know I can pick up a bottle of Tamdhu 10 fairly easily, I’m sure I’ll get to enjoy a dram or 2 of it again. But that was the last of the bottles that I bough back in 2017 thinking I was onto something special.

I don’t know what I thought I’d do with them back then. I doubt I’d have imagined that I’d be hosting a whisky podcast with the guy who first served me the whisky, and have had the experiences I’ve had since that night in Scotch.

Maybe it had been the healthy measures I’d had before, but I did get a but sentimental thinking back to 2016 and that dram at Scotch as I finished my final sip.

The Tamdhu bottles are my favourite, but they definitely look much better with whisky in them.