Review 233. Thompson Brothers Secret Speyside 2011-2023

'Mystery' releases: good fun & interesting or mere clever marketing?

Thompson Brothers  were (are) the talk of the town when releasing the first series of ‘mystery malts’. For those of you that didn’t pick up on this. Phil and Simon Thompson released 17 different single malts, from very young Nc’Nean and Lochlea all the way up to 28 year old Speyside distillery and everything in between. All in the same packaging (black bottle with a big fat question mark on them), all at the same ABV and all at £65. You wouldn’t know which one you got util you broke the seal and peaked at the cork hidden underneath.

Although he concept of releasing a mystery malt is nothing new as such, it’s hard to argue that marketing wise this idea is quite ingenuous and brilliant. That said, I reckon it’s much, much  more  than just clever marketing, as the first release of some 1300 bottles sold out in less than a day, which shows just how much people were on board with the whole concept. It’s a bit like playing the lottery, but it comes with the big perk that you’re guaranteed a bottle of whisky at the end of the day. And, based on the first reviews, none too shabby either. Those sceptical about the idea of coughing up £65 for 4 or 5 year old Lochlea or Nc’Nean: the odds of bagging one of those are actually around 12% each, and  the biggest ‘sub batch’ of this release is in fact a 16 yo Aultmore, with 21% of the total amount of bottles. So regardless of making the (false) assumption that value is determined by the age of a whisky, there’s actually a very decent chance of bringing home  something quite mature in terms of age.

So while I didn’t get my hand son any of them, on account of not living in the UK, I’m very much on board with the concept and I would love to see a second batch of these being available to more markets. Fingers firmly crossed!

As said, the idea of an undisclosed / mystery /secret… release is nothing new and there are plenty of variations on the theme. Sometimes the name remains undisclosed due to legal stuff where companies/distilleries stipulate the name of their distillery can’t be made public for non-official releases, but sometimes it’s also part of the charm of having to guess the origins of what’s in the bottle. The Whisky Exchange did something like this for a recent Black Friday special release back in 2023, and also did a ‘blind date’ thing with miniatures as a Valentine themed release earlier this year. And of course there’s the advent calendar things as well where you get 12 or 24 mystery drams (where they remain a ‘mystery’ until you open them, obviously).

TB overview of their Mystery Malts series NO1.

And Thompson Brothers too aren’t exactly newbies when it comes to bottling secret malts (as shown by this week’s review of their  ‘Secret Speyside’ bottling from 2023), no sir. These guys have priors! Dozens of ‘m in fact! This particular one is a release  from a ‘Secret Speyside’ distillery where the origin isn’t disclosed at all. This suggests it could be something like Glenfiddich or Glenlivet, but it could well be something from another distillery altogether as Aberlour or Glenfarclas or even Macallan tend to have this ‘mum’s the word’ policy towards indie releases as well. Tell you what: I’ll give you my tasting notes, you decide what it could be…

Thompson Brothers secret Speyside 11 year old (2011 – 2023). Matured in 2 refill sherry butts, NC, UCF, 48.5% ABV, app. €65 (£55)

Nose

Citrus, some acidity and synthetic notes of glue and disinfectant. The synthetic notes are not unpleasant, for the record and they diminish a bit over time, making room for notes of tart, sour apples and overall  more citrus notes of both lemon and orange. There’s a soft ‘dusty’ greenhouse floral-grassy thing to things as well. Pleasant, but nothing more.

Palate

 The acidity and the sour fruit notes are less outspoken on the palate. Mainly what I’m getting is a bit of a peppery spice note, dried fruit and white fruit, all leaning against a dry oaky note which also makes for a quite dry, medium full texture. Underneath a shy vanilla like sweetness adds a pleasant touch.

Finish

Medium long, somewhat peppery and then increasingly drying.

Final thoughts

The refill butts are quite unobtrusive to say the least, although they do add a dry, oaky texture to things. The sour and acidic notes at the start were a bit surprising and possibly heightened the threshold a bit in terms of accessibility, but with a bit of time they mellowed out nicely.  An OK, somewhat middle of the road, yet still interesting enough whisky. It doesn’t come with a lot of complexity, it’s not demanding your full attention, making this a perfectly decent background / card game whisky to be enjoyed on a pleasant summer evening. Sometimes that’ all a whisky needs to be.