Thompson Bros Mystery Malt Series 6 x2
Two blind malt whiskies | 46.3% ABV
Let the games begin.
Somehow, we have quickly arrived at edition number six of the Thompson Brothers Mystery Malt Series releases. It seems like no time at all since the concept first appeared, and the range of bottlings you could land upon has grown significantly – this release has a massive thirty-eight of them.
Within that, there are a number of distilleries I would really like to try. There are a number where I already have examples of, and there are a number where I would perhaps even be disappointed to end up with, though the taste - once opened - may change that gut perception.
Of those on the wishlist, the Glenrothes 28yo or 19yo are high up there, as are the Blair Athol 27yo and the Bowmore 20yo. Together they represent just 9.22% of the outturn, so even with two bottles, I'd feel truly lucky to land even one of them.
The Mystery Malt has been a great concept. It was refreshing to see that new type of gamification when it first launched, and while the outturns have increased significantly, there is still a good bit of fun to be had here for those interested in having a go. Half the fun is in the reveal; the other half is in convincing yourself, halfway down the glass, that you've definitely cracked it this time.
Others have tried to jump on a similar concept – where you’re invited to pay a set amount and get sent a random bottle from a pool of a few thousand – but it doesn’t really work the same way. The cynic in me (I am a total cynic) might suggest it has less to do with fun and more to do with shifting old stock. Your surprise is gone the minute you open the packaging, so there's no gamification to the actual tasting. The only lottery is whether you've paid £65 for something you could pick up for £40 from another large online retailer, or whether you've genuinely found a bargain. That said, I will admit to having received a 34-year-old Laphroaig for £45 from a Laphroaig-specific version run by a well-known whisky retailer.
Anyway, in what is becoming something of a time-honoured tradition, these need to be opened carefully so the contents stay hidden and the guessing can begin. I would absolutely love to refer to it as educated guessing, but realistically the only TBMM I have ever managed to identify blind was a Caol Ila, and I do not put myself forward as any kind of blind tasting expert.
We have already seen Wally and Dougie take their turns at the Series 6 bottlings, so now it's my turn to have a go at guessing what the hell is in each of these two bottles.
Review 1/2
Thompson Bros Mystery Malt, Series No. 6, Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 46.3% ABV
£65 paid (each) & still a little availability
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
Where’s the peat - oh, there it is, isn’t it?
Nose
The nose is bright and heavy on fresh fruit: lemon, apple, perhaps some sherry. Blackberries, vanilla and caramel. A hint of peat smoke.
Palate
The taste is briny, salty apple with apricot and elements of malt. Orange and a hint of cinnamon – peat developing over time.
Mouthfeel seems a bit light, a bit on the thin side, medium legs which become quite spicy and warming. Mildly oily, not drying at all on the finish.
The Dregs
As I opened the bottle and nosed it from the neck, my immediate thought was - wine cask!
Into the Glencairn, and those initial wine notes disappeared. No peat initially, but the longer it sat in the glass, the more I thought it was peated. Staring at the list, lost, I wondered if it was a Bowmore, but the peat seemed too restrained.
The colour is pale to golden straw. My mind is immediately ruling out the sherry-cask-matured bottles. Is it peated Ardnamurchan?
First taste. It seemed a bit flat, maybe a bit thin on the mouthfeel. Is it Tormore? Do Tormore even do peated whisky? My ignorance knows no limits. There is no noticeable peat on the taste at all. It just isn’t there for me.
Back to the list: there’s a Laphroaig 10 on it. I had a Cadenhead’s independent Laphroaig recently and it tasted nothing like the standard Laphroaig 10. It was lighter, with a thinner, more delicate mouthfeel, but I’m pretty sure the peat was still noticeable on the palate for that one. I struggle to envisage a Laphroaig where you can’t taste peat prominently, so I’m discounting that and hoping it’s not a mistake.
I think it’s Bowmore, but despite an intensive search I struggle to find significant peat anywhere initially. There is a definite whiff, though. As I have gone back to it over time, I can get peat on the palate, to the extent that I am wondering why I couldn’t get it initially. But I still don’t think it’s Laphroaig.
That brings its own issue, because there are four Bowmores on the list of possibilities!
We have a 20-year-old, a 19-year-old, an 11-year-old and a 10-year-old. The 19-year-old is from a red wine barrique, so I am discounting that straight away. Despite the rogue initial whiff of wine, it can’t be that. But the other three are all bourbon barrel matured. This doesn’t taste like an old whisky, so I would be shocked if it was the 20-year-old. So, is it the 10-year-old or the 11-year-old?
This feels like the toss of a coin. Wally got one of the Bowmores in his Mystery Malt review recently. Not that it means a thing: I could just as likely have the same one as a completely different one. I can remember reading Wally’s review with a coffee some weeks ago and really enjoying it, but I honestly can’t remember the specifics, including whether he had the 10-year-old or the 11-year-old.
So I’m going Bowmore, and on the toss of a coin I’m going 10-year-old. In all honesty, if it’s either the 10 or the 11, I’m taking it as a win. I’m not generally that great at blind tasting.
It is the Bowmore 11yo.
For me that’s a win! Right distillery and one year apart. It’s arguably unfair to expect anyone to choose between two that close. I’m also glad it wasn’t the 10-year-old bottle that Wally reviewed - Thompson Brothers Mystery Malt x2 — Dramface.
Independent Bowmores continue their run of outright embarrassing the base-level Bowmore official bottlings.
As I finish tidying up this review, I have the Bowmore MM in the glass again. I am at a total loss as to how I couldn’t taste peat on this initially. It’s now front and centre, just the way you want it.
Score: 8/10
Review 2/2
Thompson Bros Mystery Malt, Series No. 6, Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 46.3% ABV
£65 paid (each) & still a little availability
Score: 7/10
Very good indeed.
TL;DR
A new one for me, and it took a while, but it grew on me in the end
Nose
It is particularly strong on the nose with dark fruits, blackberry and plum jam. Some orange, a bit of alcohol, in fact it smells like port to me. There's a sweet sweet caramel with dark chocolate and a hint of kirsch cherry.
Palate
Subtle warm spice, stewed apples, blackcurrant jam, some dark chocolate and orange zest.
Mouthfeel is actually glorious: thick, slightly gloopy, warming. Maybe creamy on the texture. The finish is medium to long and subtle, with no alcohol burn at all. A bit of oak at the back end, but nicely so.
The Dregs
And so on to the second bottle and the now well-worn routine of opening without revealing. Confidence is high after bottle one.
Fruity nose from the bottle. Seems a familiar fruitiness. Bourbon cask again?
Now it’s in the Glencairn, is there a whiff of wine to it? Is it grape-polluted? The colour is darker but not properly sherry dark. I don’t think it’s red enough for a sherry, port or red wine cask, but it does look a bit cloudy? Holding it to the light, it absolutely does look a bit cloudy. It looks thick, which is an odd visual conclusion, I would say.
There is no peat on the nose, but the more I nose it, the more I’m convinced it is grape-polluted. In fact, it has the thick richness you would get from Port, maybe even a ruby port. Off to compare against the list, and the Port cask candidates are Ardmore, Tormore or… well, that’s it. Just the two if it’s Port cask. This seems easy, although I have little experience of either of those distilleries. But I’m yet to actually taste it.
First try makes me think of Port cask influence for sure. There are hints of fortified wine, I would say, but it’s the nose that keeps screaming port at me. If it’s not port, it must be sherry, but with that nose I’m going to struggle to see past a Port cask. Over a few sittings I can’t shake the port. I know very little about Tormore or Ardmore, so this is going to be a toss-up as well. So, final guess Tormore 15-year-old.
And just like that, it turns out to be an 11-year-old Braeval from a first-fill oloroso cask. It’s sherry rather than port, and from a distillery I genuinely don’t think I’d consciously heard of. So I’ve had to go away and find out a bit about Braeval.
Braeval is a Chivas Brothers distillery, built in 1973 purely to feed Chivas Regal and originally named Braes of Glenlivet. Sitting 352 metres up, it is, I understand, the joint-highest working distillery in Scotland. The name change came in the mid-90s – I’m not clear why.
The distillery was mothballed in 2001 and reopened in July 2008. It now operates six pot stills: two wash stills and four smaller spirit stills. These turn out about four million litres of pure alcohol a year, with almost all of it destined for Chivas blends. Sounds like a distillery I’ll need to resist writing an official-versus-independent article on.
The first single malt release didn't come until 2017, and official bottlings rarely appear. From what I can tell, the biggest run of official bottlings was a series of 25, 27 and 30-year-old releases for travel retail in 2018. There are many more independent bottlings, though, even if I’d never noticed them.
The Final Dregs
These are two good bottles. I love getting a new distillery to try, though I’m not a massive fan of oloroso casks, and that personal preference set the Braeval back slightly from the start. My initial rating was 6/10 on the Braeval, but I warmed to it considerably and it ended up a 7/10. I am pleased with the results on these two. I’ve recently seen a Thompson Brothers video on YouTube where they blind taste a case of six of their own Mystery Malts. It’s worth a watch. They also explain how the bottlings are allocated to retailers, which I found informative: they’re broken down into A, B and C bottles.
I love this Mystery Malt series and enjoy the gamification of it. And so, almost certainly, I’ll be in for Series 7!
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. CC
-
Dramface is free.
Its fierce independence and community-focused content is funded by that same community. We don’t do ads, sponsorships or paid-for content. If you like what we do you can support us by becoming a Dramface member for the price of a magazine.
However, if you’ve found a particular article valuable, you also have the option to make a direct donation to the writer, here: buy me a dram - you’d make their day. Thank you.
For more on Dramface and our funding read our about page here.
