Two Blind Mystery Bottles | 46.3% ABV

Something Everyone Should Try

This blind tasting thing - in whisky - has really taken huge strides forward in recent years.

Blind tasting is apparently prevalent in wine circles, although I’m never actually in wine circles, but you can find wine-obsessed folk everywhere assessing their glass before swishing, spitting and declaring a grape varietal, vintage or region. I really don’t know what level of expertise it’s possible to reach there, but I remember being smitten by a playlist years ago where a few egos sat around a table and did pretty well displaying their knowledge and abilities to assess a blind pour.

I remember, at the time, wondering why there wasn’t more of this in whisky. I imagined our experts; the Dave Brooms, the Charlies, the Jim Murrays (remember him?) out there might be capable of picking out the Glenburgies or the Glenkinchies. I’d have loved to have watched that.

But there wasn’t much of it around. I wondered why.

After all, a couple of decades ago, blind tasting whisky was, let’s be honest, a little easier. Most distilleries existed to produce a very specific style; one that was relied upon as a consistent ingredient for blends. Single malt remained in single percentage digits for both volume and turnover. Not so now.

The rise in the brand count today is massive. Huge growth in new, independent distilleries has appeared alongside incredible increases in official distillery releases and an explosion in the number of independent bottlers too. Distilleries these days are set up to make multiple different kinds of ‘make’. Everyone’s looking for the new and the different, and many are creative and playful. It seems like everyone has the ability to make anything they like these days. It’s becoming rarer, even for large legacy distilleries, to stick to their ‘lane’.

To the point it takes a stick-on, classic, near-perfect example of a particular distillery with a definable specific character to make me feel like I have half a chance of guessing. There are still some out there - Daftmill springs to mind, as does a typical Springbank, say - but generally only a fool would bet big on guessing anything confidently in whisky.

So, to take on a fully blind challenge - or even semi-blind, such as this Mystery Malt exercise today - takes humility, but also confidence that your audience knows just as well as you do that it’s very, very hard. There are skilled individuals out there who are demonstrably better than most, but the majority - in my experience - are a little like me; doing their best they can with what wits and attributes they have.

I think, as time has gone on, and as we all see more of it, we all judge a little less. We’ve been there. We’ve felt the pain of being humbled at whisky’s side. We don’t expect quite so much from our ‘experts’ and we can probably understand why there wasn’t a lot of whisky blind tasting published back in the day. It’s possible there was and I just missed it, of course.

However, massive kudos to the Thompson Brothers themselves, who cracked open a case of their own bottles and attempted to guess all six of them them blind. The video is a good watch and a lesson in open honesty and humility.

The Mystery Malt concept is a semi-blind set up, but you can go fully blind if you don’t peek at the list. I chose to try both this time around and, I’m honestly feeling pretty confident today.

If I’ve learned anything from previous tests, it’s to go with your first gut instincts and change them only when something presents as an obvious reason to do so.

Today all the bottling strengths are identical, so a critical aid is lost, but that’s okay. I’ll be going on everything else I can glean: profile, style, character, cask type, age and individual ‘tells’ - should they appear - in the hope of getting close to what remains undiscovered in these opaque, black bottles of hidden promise.

I try to remind myself this is fun.

Review 1/2

Thompson Brothers Mystery Malt, Series 6, 46.3% ABV
£65 (cheaper for a case of six) still some availability

My strategy this time around, barring any of those obvious tells, is to focus on the cask profile first, if possible. There are a lot of possibilities on this release with thirty-eight variants bottled. It’ll be tricky, so narrowing down the cask type will help.

I also decide to skip breakfast and even avoid tea or coffee. As is evident, I’ve donned my serious face this morning.

I’m also going to score them blind, before revealing what they are. The scores you see are based on that, I’ve not changed them after the reveal.

Maybe today’s the day I nail it.

Score: 7/10

**Very Good Indeed.**
***TL;DR***
*An easy drinking fruit-and- confectionery bomb*

Nose

First pass, no smoke. But there’s a lovely sweet citrus and bags of honeycomb and vanilla fondant. It’s rich and carries me towards confectionery with ripe strawberries, strawberry laces too, some fruit pastilles and jelly babies.

It’s giving off strong American oak vibes, I feel confident that we’re in fresh bourbon territory here, although I won’t rule out a dechar-rechar possibility.

Palate

Okay this is lovely and rich, a touch sweet with the confectionery aisle making a strong appearance once more. There’s more citrus though, sweet clementines and orange Lucozade. The texture is pretty thick given the ABV, it’s silky and oily. I’m still in fresh bourbon thoughts, and more vanilla only convinces me of the same.

I add a little water to see if it can illuminate my dull brain, which it does a little. The fruit brightens and freshens, but everything stays on the same tracks.

The Dregs

I feel like we have a teenager here, in the realm of 16 years old and from a first-fill ex-bourbon barrel. I pull up the list.

Damn. The only thing that fits is a Glenburgie; 17 years old and first-fill. It must be that then? Strong contender, but I feel like I know Glenburgie’s fruit and I’m not sure it’s this.

The others are all young: Isle of Raasay, Harris, Lochlea and Lagg. There’s an Ardnamurchan too in first-fill, but it’s peated. While that’s caught me out before, I’d put my house on this not being Ardnamurchan, or peated.

A cursory glance further towards the bourbon barrel stuff and I see everything there is also peated; they’re all Laphroaigs and Bowmores. I’m happy to discount those.

As a just-in-case I scope out the other cask options. There are some dechar-rechars that distract me. I discount the Caol Ila and the grassy Dailuaine, but a Glen Ord and potentially two Clynelish options are there and I’m rattled.

I end up in a tailspin as I spot a bunch of refill hogshead options and refill sherry potential. All are fair game. I need to steady things. I’m now in the dangerous second-guessing-myself zone. I take a beat and interrogate the glass. It tells me faithfully that it’s all of those possibilities. Damn.

However, sitting with it I’m struck by the silky texture, those gradually softening fruits and a rich, background, vanilla-scented honey that develops into a malty grain. This is exaggerated further by adding more water. I’m not panicking, you are.

After a few sips, I do the dangerous thing and switch it up. I think there’s enough sweetness here to convince me the vanillins and lignins that come from the dechar-rechar process are present in the glass. I consider the silky texture, present even with a teaspoon of water in the glass now, and I decide it’s possibly a Clynelish. There are two options. A ten year old and a thirteen year old.

I choose the older. I’m locked in.

Lays an Gennemen… we have ourselves a Clynelish 13yo from a dechar-rechar. Do we?

I lift the cap.

Damn it Janet.

I sit in quiet contemplation for a while.

It’s so, so wrong. I’m so wrong.

We have an Arran 10yo, from refill (2nd-fill) sherry hogshead. Wow. I’m stunned and surprised. Which will surprise no one else.

I go back to the glass and, of course, everything fits: the fruit, the sweetness, the vanilla. I usually get more of an orange-y vibe from Arran, but a quick glance back at my notes and another sip - it’s also there. Damn. I didn’t pay any attention to anything beyond American oak barrels, certainly not ex-sherry, even if it is a second fill hoggie.

A swing and a miss.

A familiar feeling. I still have a chance with number two though eh?

I scored this a 7/10 and - to me today - this is better than the official Arran 10yo, it’s a little sharper and the texture is gorgeous. I stick to my score. This one’s a cracking summer sipper.

Score: 7/10

Review 2/2

Thompson Brothers Mystery Malt, Series 6, 46.3% ABV
£65 (cheaper for a case of six) still some availability

Only slightly deflated I move on to the second glass, which has been breathing a little longer.

Score: 8/10

**Something special.**
***TL;DR***
*This one is delicious, it’s coastal, floral and lovely*

Nose

Oh, slight step-change, but not miles away. There’s a lovely, bright, freshness to things here. I’m immediately in a meadow; very floral with an outdoor element, I forget about the cask interrogation and my thoughts head straight to the coast.

There is fruit, and once more it’s orangey, but things are dominated by a leaner, cleaner, slightly mineralic quality and even some salty air and seaweed. No smoke though.

Palate

Oh. Ooh. This feels like it could actually be an American oak barrel this time, and maybe even refill too. There’s way less cask influence here but, instead of trying to compare it to the first dram, I try to dial into the glass. I focus.

I love this. I love the thrill of tasting blind, yes, but I love the whisky too. It’s quite lovely and precise. There’s a background sweetness, especially on the finish, but everything’s about the outdoor salt and minerals. Lots of floral pops too. Vanilla pods, Lee’s snowballs, desiccated coconut, and the lightest of yellow fruit. Is that smoke?

With water, and especially on the finish, I convince myself there’s a soft smoke. I head up to one of our grumpy teenage house-dwellers and place the glass between her and the freshly poured bowl of cereal. “Do you smell smoke?” she replies no, and informs me that it smells instead like ‘sweeties’, and asks why I’m drinking at 9:00am.

Fair enough.

The Dregs

Once more I’m all over the place, but I have time. So I go slowly with this one and pour a second glass. An afternoon nap may be a thing today. I settle on an 8/10; this one is something special and I’m grateful to have it.

Before I head back to the list of possibilities, I lock-in what I’m confident about: a refill barrel or hoggie, teenage years, coastal but not smokey, and very fresh and floral. I’m drawn to Highland Park, which could explain that possible smokey spectre in the background. The floral thing fits. The coastal, salty thing fits. The orangey thing too. It all fits. Do we have a Highland Park on the list?

Heading to the list there’s only one option. A Highland Park from a refill hogshead. Beauty. But it’s twenty-two years old.

That’s a bit older than I expect this to be, but it’s such a lovely dram it’s entirely possible. A swell of confidence takes over and I casually flick the foil cap into the air with my thumb.

I stare, waiting for my disbelieving eyes to blink.

And immediately rage-quit.

A Bowmore.

A young Bowmore at that. From a bourbon barrel, no more details, but I suspect it would be first, or possibly second, fill. I just sit there staring for a while. In a huff.

Then some pragmatism kicks in.

I got a lot of things wrong here, but I also got a lot of things right. While that didn’t get me any closer to fathoming out what was eventually in the glass I’m not upset with my appraisal and I’m certainly not upset with the quality of the two bottles. They are cracking additions to the cabinet and I look forward to spending more time with them.

The Final Dregs

Are these worth the £65 asking price? Yes, definitely, for the liquid alone. But, for the sheer lottery scratch-card fun of the opening ceremony - that builds the value prospect immeasurably.

As this Mystery Malt concept unfolds I realise there is yet another development to this I never expected; a layer of continued fun, if you like. I now have in excess of ten of these, all identical bottles, littered throughout the shelves. I’ll keep the foil cap in place and gather them all together in one spot and shuffle them around. Every once in a while, I’ll head in and pour myself another blind pour and play the game all over again.

One day, surely, I’ll get it right.

Until then, this is cracking fun. Everyone should be playing these games.

But damn it.

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

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