Fragrant Drops 13yo Secret Speyside
Madeira Barrique Finish | 51.4% ABV
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
A restrained Madeira finish that complements rather than dominates
Authenticity through personality.
I care more about branding in the whisky industry than could reasonably be considered healthy for a well-functioning adult.
As a communications and marketing professional, this obsession is baked into my DNA at this point - and I can’t switch it off.
For clarity, I don’t work in the drinks industry. There are, however, two industries outside my own that I follow obsessively when it comes to the branding and marketing of products: these are whisky and fast food.
Both are brutally competitive markets - and getting your marketing wrong can be genuinely fatal. As consumers we are not particularly forgiving.
I can honestly say that I am consistently in awe at the depth of creativity across the drinks industry – particularly the output from independent bottlers.
So recently, when my whisky WhatsApp group chats - the modern press release? - started heating up, discussing the rebranding of certain Highland distilleries - my heart jumped. A flash of excitement, quickly followed by a flicker of fear. What have they done?
Confession time – this opening is all that has survived of my initial draft of this piece. I had tried to approach recent rebrands across the sector with curiosity rather than judgement. What I ended up with, however, was the equivalent of a man sighing loudly into the void. It was cathartic to write - however, it didn’t make for compelling reading.
As such, this piece sat in my draft folder for weeks - untouched, toxic and quietly disappointing me. That was until I picked up this Secret Speyside from Fragrant Drops…
The bottle has re-awakened that branding flame inside of me. The one that had been beaten down by the process of analysing recent rebrands across the sector. Rebrands that often felt like a creative agency had asked ChatGPT to design a supermarket whisky label that would offend absolutely no one.
So what is it I like so much about the Fragrant Drops bottle currently sitting on my desk as I type this? I’ll break it down - briefly, I promise.
Firstly, I can’t look past the vial-style bottle. It’s reminiscent of a 19th century apothecary experiment. There is something classically gothic about it which, as an Edgar Allan Poe fanatic, really appeals to me.
Then there’s the labelling; minimalist in style, touch and typography. It gives me ‘we’ve created this from home’ vibes which lands very differently from traditional whisky branding. It stands out. It feels genuine, it feels unique.
However, what isn’t minimalist is the thought which has gone into the content of the labels. The subtle and intricate line art often includes references to the whisky in terms of its taste profile and/or distillery imagery. These are usually layered subtly through the artwork for consumers who are paying attention, engaging beyond the standard cursory glance.
Packaged together, it lands with distinctive personality.
Most importantly, it feels authentic. I don’t know Rachel and George, the owners and purveyors at Fragrant Drops. However, from their output – it feels like I do. Their personalities feel woven through every fabric of this bottle.
Does any of this matter though? Beyond, of course, my own branding indulgence?
Let’s be honest – the shelves behind bars and in bottle shops are a battlefield. On the battlefield, whisky doesn’t just compete within themselves for attention, it competes with other spirits. On our screens – it competes with other entertainment, even.
Here, branding and packaging can be your primary marketing channel. They inspire purchasing decisions.
Whisky will continue to be bought blindly by those who have not yet tasted the liquid inside the bottle, and while that purchasing pattern continues to take place, branding will matter. Branding will matter just as much when differentiating purchases within the single cask market - just as much as it matters in supermarkets, airports, and Instagram feeds.
At this point I’m proud to have made it several hundred words into a piece about whisky branding without using the words “clean” or “modern”. After enough time living in the branding space, patterns like those begin to become easily recognisable. Like how every new rebrand nods respectfully to ‘brand heritage’ – but only after establishing a brand-new colour palette and surviving several rounds of senior management feedback.
Snide jabs aside - what would a successful rebrand look like then? Well - how long is a length of string? It’s different for everyone.
As much as it pains me to admit - it all comes down to who the rebrand is for.
Geeky whisky botherers like myself are not the target audience for every brand. Therefore, by definition, I probably won’t be thrilled with every rebrand that takes place across the sector. They are driven by the market.
Rebrands are decisions made for, often, rational business reasons.
Despite them being often emotionally jarring for long-time drinkers of the brand like me, or you…
However, we must also recognise that not all business decisions are the correct ones – and not all redesigns are successful, even if they do make sense on paper.
All we can really hope for in the end is continuity, clarity… and good whisky.
For it might be the branding that grabs your attention, but it’s the whisky which earns your time.
As I sit here, pouring a dram from a container that could have been stolen from Dr Frankenstein’s laboratory, one thing remains clear. No matter the packaging - I still love a good dram.
Review
Fragrant Drops Secret Speyside 13yo, Fresh Madeira Barrique finish, Cask 1237, 51.4% ABV
£73 paid, still some availability
This Fragrant Drops “Secret Speyside” is an intriguing release: a single cask, matured for 13 years and then given an eight-month finish in a first-fill Madeira barrique. I don’t have a huge history with Madeira aged whisky – but we have met, in passing, in the past.
Some retailers have publicly listed this bottling under Mannochmore distillery in their catalogue; however, as always with ‘secret’ releases – this cannot be confirmed.
Bottled at a robust but not overpowering 51.4% ABV, it’s non-chill filtered and natural colour, all the good stuff we look for. It’s limited to 273 bottles from cask #1237, for those with spreadsheets.
Fragrant Drops have been a very steadily growing presence within my small circle of the whisky world over the last few years. An increasing amount of people have been letting me know about their excitement at their releases – and circling their name as a “must go” for all whisky festivals.
Having spent some time with their releases – I can see why. I was excited to see how this one compared…
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
A restrained Madeira finish that complements rather than dominates
Nose
On the nose, the Madeira influence is recognisable from the outset. Caramelised raisins and figs are joined by orange zest and a gentle but present dried oak.
There is a malt touch, but it definitely plays a supporting role. Instead, the dram leans sweeter - wine gums and cola bottles giving a sugary sweet and nostalgic edge that hangs without becoming cloying.
Palate
More malt comes through on the palate, but it’s still not overly powerful. It still leans more fruity – into a cooked fruit, honey biscuit silo. There is a stone fruit aspect – and it tails off with a spice note, white pepper and ginger.
The palate noticeably shifts the balance slightly back toward malt, though it still never becomes dominant.
The sweetness evolves into something more cooked and rounded - combining honeyed biscuit, stewed citrus fruits and a stone fruit note.
The finish continues a lift towards white pepper and ginger spice, adding a new element and preventing the Madeira influence from becoming too plush. It’s controlled and cohesive.
The Dregs
The finish of the dram lasts as long as I would hope for, sitting on my palate for a few minutes after each sip. It’s long enough to allow me to stew over and start to dissect some of the impact the madeira cask has had on the spirit.
The spirit is far from overwhelmed by an extreme cask influence and there is no ABV battering bravado. Instead, it delivers a surprisingly well-balanced and rich dram for a Madeira-finished Speyside whisky.
For the price, this feels like a fair and honest offering in today’s single cask market.
The semi-gothic apothecary aesthetic suggests something dramatic - yet the liquid inside is balanced and composed. Perhaps even warming. For, as the great Edgar Allan Poe once said; "There is no exquisite beauty... without some strangeness in the proportion".
An easy 8/10.
Score: 8/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. AM
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