Getting back to my fanboy distillery, Tamdhu. Ever since my first taste of the 10 year old I was hooked and have gobbled up as many bottles as my budget has allowed. Here we have the second release in their Batch Strength series, Batch 002. This review has been a long time coming as I’ve been sitting on this sample provided by @LeeEvolved for over a year. This Speyside single malt was bottled at 58.5% ABV, non chill filtered and as all Tamdhu are, this is natural color, a nice dark copper. The nose is full on sherry with mulling spices, especially cinnamon with a little mint as well. Intense sherried oak, anise, licorice root. Spiced fruitcake, dense with dried fruits like dates, cherries and faint apricots. Cocoa powder, orange zest/oil. Somewhat nutty - Brazil and walnuts, honey, malty, tobacco and hay, ginger and leather. Toffee, caramel and a quick hit of sweet vermouth. Amazing. The palate is intensely sweet and spicy. The first sip was heavenly. Dark cherries, sherry and oak. The cherry taste is so intense and I absolutely love it. Fudge, cocoa, hazelnut. Cinnamon, clove anise, nutmeg and cola. I didn’t get a whole lot more than that because I was lost in the experience. A full bodied mouthfeel that is oily with heat, mouthwatering and mouth coating. The finish is long, the kind of long where if you drink it before bed and don’t brush your teeth you will taste it in the morning, maybe even if you do brush, lol. Sherry, cherries, oak, cinnamon and cocoa. Even though drinking this without water was incredibly satisfying I decided to add water to see what would happen. BIG MISTAKE! It brings out a little more fruit in the nose, but completely ruins the palate by muting the intensity that made it so enjoyable. This is a fantastic whisky, the best I’ve had in quite a while. Full intense flavors with a crate full of cherries. The nose was good, but the palate was great. The finish was the “low point” if it could indeed be called low. Best enjoyed 1oz at a time, as any more than that will burn out your palate with flavor overload. At around $80 it’s a great deal. Good luck finding any though, as they are now onto Batch 004. 4.5 and looking forward to getting into my bottle of Batch 003. Cheers