Hamish & Jackie’s Blind bottles | 48.5% ABV

Score: 8/10

**Something special.**
***TL;DR***
*Grip, complexity and a nice melt-in-your-mouth texture*

The tricky sequels

When it comes to sequels or follow-ups, there’s always a risk they’ll never be as good as what came before.

It’s especially something of a phenomenon with many movie trilogies; 'the third one was the worst!' as a typical comment of acceptance. So much so that today, the third sequels tend to arrive with an expected decline in quality. Some examples might include The Godfather Part 3; Aliens 3; Back to the Future Part 3. There are a few more I could add there, for sure, but I'd rather avoid the inevitable arguments against in the comments.

Whether it’s movies, music or television it can be true that 'Trilogies are like relationships — by the third one, you’re just trying to make it work.' Instalment number three is burdened by the expectations and hype of the previous two.

In whisky it’s also sometimes true but, it would seem not for the unstoppable Thompson Brothers. With this Mystery Malt series, they've thrown out the rule book and assumptions when it comes to purchasing and enjoyment of bottles of malt whisky.

Who would have thought that bottling a series of randomly differing whiskies, posting the lineup but not telling the punter what's in the bottle until it's opened, would be a thing? And not just an acceptable thing, a successful thing too; going by the vanishing availability of Series 1 and 2.

Now, personally, I do get apprehension when it comes to something like this. It really isn't for everyone. I for one would want to know exactly the calibre in the bottle when parting ways with my hard-earned. I've been burned before with whisky that’s been sub-par. I know you’ll recognise the sentiment. But, ladies and gentle-drinkers… trust me when I say this, you're in good hands.

I noticed only recently that I have a fair number of indie bottlings on hand from the Thompson Brothers. Distilleries and profiles I haven't tried before where I decided to take the risk on something new simply because it was released by Phil and Simon. I have yet to be disappointed. Their judgement, attention to detail, cask management and even their own reputation is obvious in each release I’ve tried thus far. This Mystery Malt series concept is no different.

I bought into Series 1 in a heartbeat. Having been in and out of whisky drinking and enjoyment for most of this year, it was exactly the spark I needed to get excited about tasting and even reviewing once again. No matter what expression I received, I was confident it would be both great in quality and overall enjoyment.

Series 2 brought much more of the same pleasure and excitement with an added element of, 'I wonder how lucky I'll be this time?'

Nabbing the Teaninich 17 first time round, followed up by the Dornoch 5 year old… I feel like I've done very well in picking up some belters cloaked in mystery.

Series 3 is their biggest release to date and is also the first to make it out for export. I also see that series 4 is already in the works and could be a US exclusive. Well, I suppose we can’t hog all the fun over here in the British Isles.

I'm not the only whisky drinker thrilled over the mysteriousness of these releases. My socials seem filled with bars, shops and punters buying into the idea. This is often not only bottles on sale but some also offering the ability to try them. Whisky flights available for curious folk allowing a taste of what they had in the series if you weren't lucky enough to grab a bottle. Great fun and a wonderful idea around an idea.

Check out the series at the Mystery Malt website here.

Here's a breakdown along with the bottle count and percentage chance of picking up a bottle:

Review 1/2 - Hamish

‘A Highland Distillery’ 19yo, Refill hogshead, 294 bottles, 5.89% chance, 48.5% ABV
£65 now sold out

I’ve opened and poured knowing what the cork topper says. I decided not to do the blind review like we did with Series 1 and 2. I’ll leave that up to Jackie later on in his (debut!) review.

Okay, we have a 19 Year Old Highland. I’m still blind! Ha!

I immediately think it might be a Clynelish. 294 bottles of this available bottle in batch 3. Refill Hogshead barrels used.

Excited again to get stuck into this dram. Batch 3 and the enjoyment factor hasn’t dwindled or lowered any.

Expectations? None, bring it on.

Nose

Fresh with a light element of oats and malted barley. It’s bright and welcoming. Green apples. Fresh blueberries with tinned peach notes too. Some white grapes. Dry wood chippings. Vanilla essence, brown sugar and cream soda. Cold custard, rice pudding, fairy cakes with icing sugar and a heap of pear halves as well.

Palate

Spiced. Rounded. There’s that malt element and milk-soaked oats as well. A fresh taste with a clean mouthfeel. It’s crisp with a little sour element toward the back end of the first sip. More delicious malt that pairs nicely with honey dew melon, apples and dates. A little prickly on the palate at times, which turns into some ginger and nutmeg. A hint of liquorice also. A super long finish here. Some lemon curd sweetness and sharpness cutting through (in a good way), but overall it’s creamy with lashings of macadamia nut and vanilla cream finishing it off.

The Dregs

That long finish is fabulous and doesn’t let up. It transforms into more fruit sweetness with plums and grapes. This one had a wonderful mouthfeel and just had me going back for more and more. Complexity and grip here for days.

Now, I haven’t had too many examples of mature Clynelish to put a guess on here as to what ‘A highland’ whisky would be from Thompson Brothers. Wally had suggested to me that, on paper, it may be a Clynelish, but I'm not sure. And that’s fine. The chatter on the street shouts Highland Park. That fits. Regardless, it’s stunning nonetheless and an absolute joy to taste.

I’ve struck lucky once again with the Mystery Malt lottery, and would happily part with another £65 for such an experience - no matter what was in the bottle from that list.

The only problem is, like the other two batches, I haven’t a clue how much liquid is left in the bottle due to the deeply opaque, black glass bottle. But that’s a function of necessity. I can’t say much else about this series of releases that hasn’t been said before. The value is there. There’s variety in abundance (although you could get unlucky with duplicates!).

It seems to be welcomed by the community and the enjoyment factor is through the roof. What else do you want from whisky? It’s there to give us an experience, pleasure and an indulgence outside of the 9 to 5.

It’s refreshing and we can all let whisky get a little serious at times. This is simply good fun.

Score: 8/10 HF

Review 2/2 - Jackie

Royal Brackla 16yo, Refill hogshead, 265 bottles, 5.3% chance, 48.5% ABV
£65 now sold out

Well… this feels like a long time coming.

After spending four years tinkering behind the scenes at Dramface HQ, this is my first foray into writing anything. But the klaxon went out from Wally for these, and I bit.

We’re offered a discount from the Thompson Brothers as part of their online community program. But Dramface policy meant accepting would involve writing a review.

However, it’s far less intimidating when you’re already invested in an idea and love the concept. Hence me jumping on the offer of a bottle. The first two Series’ releases disappeared very quickly, I was in no way guaranteed a bottle when they dropped. In the end, I couldn’t be happier to be contributing with one of the best recent ideas in whisky.

This will be my second evening with this dram, and it currently still sits blind in the bottle. I have no idea what it is and we all know how well blind drams turn out.

So, Wally really has ripped the training wheels off on the first go. No chance of cheating a peek at other notes or reviews — fully unadulterated, word vomiting, thesaurus scrambling, fake-it-till-you-make-it, digital word-smithing. I just pray this thing's spellchecker can keep up.

For kicks, after I’ve written it all out, I’ll ask ChatGPT to re-write in the style of Dougie Crystal and Wally Macaulay. Maybe I’ll share the results one day.

Here goes.

Score: 6/10

**Good stuff.**
***TL;DR***
*Bright, waxy mystery full of lemon fizz*

Nose

Light, bright, sharp, zesty, fresh, crisp…

A wee bit herbal, metallic sweetness, apple juice, lemon sherbets, lemon pith/oil, heaps of effervescence! Clearly unpeated, maybe a pre-ager/tween, doesn’t feel old (not that I can always tell).

The lemon oil and pith notes read as waxy now — soft chewy sweets. My I AM A Distillery guess would be Loch Lomond. Odd white ash “feeling”, white pepper-ish, Mango Rubicon fizz-soap.

Lemon pepper and salt, smoked salt (Ardnamurchan?) and a suggestion of aerosol furniture polish/cleaner.

Can’t wait any longer. My bonnet strings are already getting caught.

Palate

Sharp, bright, zesty — I struggle to keep up with the experience on the first go. So many things are happening at once. It doesn’t read as hot, with only one calibration dram prior.

Sharp, drying pith; feels young again. Doesn’t seem to linger much, but a faint bitter lemon dryness. I’m not sure if this is a Loch Lomond — it doesn’t feel familiar.

A suggestion of malt, grainy, rich tea biscuit notes with black tea. Very moreish! The black tea and lemon bitterness is what I imagine an Earl Grey is like. Slightly green, sour, boiled sweets finish.

Burnt lemon, oak char, and warming fermented notes in the background. It feels like drinking washback juice. It’s really coating the palate.

It’s creamy and menthol now — like having a Werther's Original and a Fox's Glacier Mint at once.

The Dregs

So, going into this I wanted it to be fully blind. I tore the foil strip but left the cap on, and I also restrained myself from looking at the release notes on the website (wow, who designed this thing? Very nice 😉), so as not to give me anything to guess against.

So far, I’ve been tiptoeing between Loch Lomond fizz and Ardnamurchan salt.

I can see there is a Loch Lomond in the mix, but there is no way this is an Oloroso cask, right? To me it feels young — so maybe the Glasgow. But I’ve not had a fully ex-bourbon (yet), and I’ve never had a whiff of an Annandale. Or maybe it could be the Raasay. Or the Dornoch…

Right, I can’t wait. Here goes nothing! … Oh my.

This is a 16yo Royal Brackla!

I mean, wow — the colour makes sense with the whisky being so light. My notes there were “chardonnay wine, diluted lemon cordial”, but I can’t believe this is as old as it is.

Maybe I haven’t given this enough time in the bottle to open up — and I have no idea if I’m past the shoulder with this black bottle — but that has really surprised me. I am super happy with the reveal, and the bottle so far has been super fun to get to know.

I won’t hide my love for this concept the Thompson Bros are running with, and it’s brilliant to see it get into its stride — especially now that this is going to head overseas.

So I hope all of you reading (thank you) manage to get your hands on one of their mystery bottles, and have as much fun as we do, testing yourself and trying it blind.

If you’ve managed to grab one of the 265 Royal Brackla’s in the Series 3 release, do these notes sound at least familiar to your own experiences? Forgive the first-timer nerves, but this has been a very mouth-to-screen style of sharing it.

So long as our editor is happy to have me back, I think I might give this another crack down the line… Let's see how I feel when it’s published and out there, but this has been a lot of fun.

Score: 6/10 JM

Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. HF

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