Some time ago, I attended a special tasting of Tullibardine single malt whisky at The Brandy Library. Since I was somewhat impressed by the uniqueness of Tullibardine and had a lot of questions, Adam Jacobs of Total Beverage Solution hooked me up with James Robertson, International Sales Manager for Tullibardine (who missed the tasting due to volcanic activity in Iceland). What follows is the result of an interview with James Robertson conducted by email.
Matt: James, what is your official title?
James Robertson: International Sales Manager
M: How long have you been in this position?
JR: Just over 2 years, before that I worked in the wine trade for 15 years including 8 years with Taittinger and Louis Jadot.
M: I really enjoy the unique character of the ’93 vintage. Is this what we can expect from Tullibardine in the future?
JR: At the end of last year we produced our first bottling of new Tullibardine (made from spirit after 2003) tasted blind against the 1993 at recent events in Canada and Europe customers have been amazed how similar the profile is for a single malt which is in effect 6 years old.
M: Are the same barley strains available now as when the distillery was mothballed? If not, how do you plan on recapturing the unique profile built under previous ownership?
JR: The Barley used comes from as local a source as we can get, harvests permitting. The profile is certainly being retained but also we feel improved by following the same model as before but also in much better cask purchasing.
M: Is the plan to continue with the vintage model instead of an age statement or will that change once you start bottling the whiskies produced after 2003?
JR: The plan is at the moment to continue with the vintage statement although the new bottling mentioned earlier has no age statement but is called “Aged Oak Edition”. There may well be no age statement wood finishes to follow, so Tullibardine Port Finish for example.
M: When will we see whisky made completely under the new management hit the market?
JR: In most markets the Aged Oak has arrived but I am not sure when we will get it onto the US market, soon I hope!
M: When you opened up the warehouse doors in 2003, did you find anything that surprised you? Will there be any weird one-off bottlings like we’ve seen with Bruichladdich?
JR: There were no real surprises although I think that most commentators would agree that we have been exceptionally lucky in the quality of the 1960 casks that we have bottled to date. All of them have been very fruity and not woody at all. Our oldest cask from 1952 will be bottled in the near future. We will not be increasing the range too much as we feel that we do not want to go down the route of “shelf pollution” as one retailer put it about distilleries releasing too many expressions but we have got some casks being finished off in Banyuls which is probably a first!
M: What can we expect from Tullibardine in the future?
JR: We aim to produce single malts that retain the elegant, delicate and fruity style of Tullibardine and also to maintain the policy of selling our single malts at a price across the range that means that at each level they do not just sit on the shelf.
M: Thank you so much for your time. I know I’m looking forward to seeing more Tullabardine on the shelf. I’m especially interested to see what Banyuls casks do to the spirit. Hopefully, we’ll cross paths at a whisky festival in the near future.
There you have it folks. If you’re looking for a slightly different single malt, go looking for Tullibardine. It looks like it’s only going to get more interesting.
-Matt