A cask strength 30-year old single cask from an anonymous Speyside distillery, brought to us by Thompson Bros, the independent bottlers & distillers behind Dornoch Distillery. May as well take a quick look at the state of the independent bottling market while we're at it...
Well, maybe...
Is it just me or are there a lot more mystery distillery malts around these days? And also more "teaspooned" blended malts for that matter. There are certainly a lot more independent bottlers around these days than there were ten years ago, and all of them now have a much harder time when it comes to finding decent casks at reasonable prices. I have no doubt that this explosion in the number of small indy bottlers is a major factor here, but it's not the only factor. Yes, more bottlers probably means more brokers, which is also why we're getting more "mystery malts", but let's not forget the rise of the dastardly "cask investment scheme" which sees often-naïve investors pour their cash into what they're told is the latest hot commodity with guaranteed safe returns. There's a reason they're called investment schemes, people... Not all are treacherous of course, but many have already been proven to be suspicious, or even fraudulent to the point of criminal charges and international press. On top of these factors, more distilleries and distillery owners - including some of the largest in the industry - are now restricting external supply or ceasing it altogether. Many of those distilleries & companies are now happy to sell casks to wealthy private clients instead, at ridiculously exorbitant prices of course. Take Diageo's Prima & Ultima releases for example, or that insane cask of Ardbeg that was sold to a single Asian buyer for a record-settingly stupid sum of money. How anyone could possibly interpret all of those regurgitated press releases as positive is far beyond me. They were a harbinger of doom. When all of those websites clicked their publish buttons they were helping bring on the end-times for reasonably priced casks of aged whisky. The only people who should've been happy with that piece of news were the LVMH shareholders and the company's leadership. That happened over a year ago now, and in hindsight it may have been one of the harbingers of doom for the "traditional" whisky drinker. Just like distilleries and their marketing teams now watch the secondary market and - quite rightly, to a point - want their extra share of the profit pie, upon reading these articles those same distilleries and their marketing teams would've immediately starting seeing dollar signs scrolling behind their eyelids like Neo sees the cascading code in The Matrix. Personally, I hope that cask springs a leak!
These factors and the continuing boom in single malt whisky means that casks of are becoming vastly more expensive and more difficult to obtain, and none of this is good news for any independent bottler from the latest Taiwanese "hobby bottler" sole operator to the likes of Adelphi and Gordon & MacPhail. Speaking of which, I'm sure we've all seen about three hundred articles about G&M "ceasing independent bottling" recently so I won't go into it too far, but something needs to be clarified in order to avoid a misunderstanding and create a panic. Funnily enough this was not properly discussed in most of the mainstream circles where clicks drive their revenue. G&M is one of the few independent bottlers who solely buy new make spirit from distilleries to fill into their own casks, as opposed to the usual method of buying maturing / mature stock from brokers and/or private cask owners. Yes, G&M is stopping this practice as of next year, but that doesn't mean the independent bottlings will stop anywhere in the near future. They could still have enough casks in their massive warehouses to keep multiple future generations sated. Think of it this way; the final batch of new make spirit that G&M purchase from distillery x in 2024 and then filled into a cask then starts at zero. It must spend three years in cask to even become whisky, so we're already at 2027, and from there it could go on ageing for decades. Both Benromach and The Cairn distilleries are quite small, with a combined annual capacity of less than 2-million litres of spirit, and G&M don't plan to release anything from The Cairn until it reaches twelve years of age, which means roughly 2035. That should give you an idea of the timescale that we're looking at. The company's independent bottlings range from from 7-years to 80-years from a plethora of different distilleries. Remember that record-setting oldest single malt ever, the 81-year old Macallan that broke G&M's record-setting oldest single malt ever, the 80-year old Mortlach? Right, well would you like to guess where Macallan obtained that cask of 81-year old Macallan? It wasn't from their own warehouses... Having been lucky enough to visit the G&M warehouse complex in Elgin, let me assure you that we'll see plenty of their independent bottlings well in to the future. They'll inevitably start to taper off as the mature stock is bottled and isn't replaced with new spirit, but a lot of us won't have to worry about that eventuality, if you catch my meaning...
But we aren't here to talk about G&M or Ardbeg, we're here to talk about Thompson Bros.! Simon & Phil Thompson started with a whisky bar in the Dornoch Castle Hotel that is owned by their parents, found roughly an hour's drive north of Inverness in the Highlands. The pair quickly establishing the hotel bar as one of the leading whisky bars in the region, which helped them establish their own independent bottling operation. Thompson Bros was founded in 2015, then successfully crowdfunded their own distillery. Housed in the hotel's old fire station, Dornoch Distillery began producing new make spirit in 2017 and released its first single malt in late 2020. With traditional "old school" production - using organic heritage barley varieties, brewer's yeast, and even direct-fired alembic stills - and tiny production volumes of under 20,000 litres per year, this is essentially the new Daftmill, but with a more experimental side. As far as Thompson Bros independent bottlings go, most are cask strength single casks of single malt Scotch whisky, along with some blended malts and blended whiskies, plus some brandy and a few other oddities. Pricing does seem to be quite reasonable, even here in Australia where that's certainly a rarity. Thankfully the local importers Select Spirits - brought to us by the legendary Kelvin & Yao from the brilliant Elysian whisky bar in Melbourne - are very even-handed with their pricing and their stock allocations.
This particular example is a 30-year old single cask of single malt from an undisclosed Speyside distillery - so not from the actual Speyside Distillery, but from another distillery within the Speyside region of Scotland. It was distilled in 1990 and bottled in 2021 at a cask strength of 50.4% ABV, with a single refill American oak cask yielding 278 bottles. As with everything that Thompson Bros release it's non-chill filtered and natural colour. There are two main rumours regarding which distillery was responsible for this whisky, with most saying Glen Grant, but this is unconfirmed (**edit: Glenlivet has now been added to the list!). Most independent bottlings of Glen Grant - the only Scotch whisky distillery that is owned by Italian company Campari Group - are bottled as anonymous Speysiders, save perhaps those from G&M which has a very long-standing relationship with this distillery. There have been a few independently bottled Glen Grants released at similarly advanced ages recently, which combined with the flavour profile makes me believe those rumours surrounding this bottling from Thompson Bros. Pricing in Australia was $399 AUD, which is extremely reasonable for any single malt in this age bracket here in 2023. To give some perspective for the overseas readers, most 30-year old official bottlings of single malt are priced locally at $1,000 AUD and upwards, and most of those are only bottled at 40% or 43% and are chill filtered. So this Thompson Bros. bottling is something of a bargain! Let's get to it.
Thompson Bros. Speyside 30-year old, 50.4% ABV. Speyside, Scotland.
Undisclosed distillery in Speyside region. Distilled 1990, bottled 2021, matured in a refill American oak cask. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 278 bottles.
Colour: Medium gold.
Nose: Lovely relaxed & mature freshness. Malty, fruity & sweet. Fresh red apple skins, white peaches, beeswax, malt biscuits, touch of white pepper. A little sawdust, vanilla pudding, oat cakes, subtle hint of liquorice. Crystallised ginger, and a touch of leafy green herbs with more time.
Texture: Medium weight. Nicely oily, slightly waxy, sweet & fruity. Great balance. No heat at all.
Taste: Delicious malty, sweet, waxy, and fruity entry with waxy red apples, vanilla pudding, malt biscuits, and powdered ginger. Touch of sawdust, white pepper, and powdered ginger. White peaches & beeswax again heading into the finish.
Finish: Medium length. Tinned orchard fruit in sweet juice (not syrup), white pepper, and powdered ginger again. Then the beeswax, fresh red apples and malt biscuits return. Sweet fruit juices, malty & sweet to the end.
Score: 4 out of 5.
Notes: Lovely fruity, waxy, and malty Speysider. Touches of sawdust and ginger from the cask, but on the whole it's delightfully spirit driven after three decades in a refill cask. The nose is nicely complex, less so on the palate and finish, but there's still plenty to keep you entertained in that lovely relaxed, patient, contemplative style that quality old Speyside malts do so well. For the price, given this is a 30-year old cask strength single malt from a single cask, this is a no-brainer. As to the distillery responsible, as said above the two main rumours were Glen Grant and Fettercairn. I'm yet to try any old Fettercairns, and the old Glen Grants that I've tasted were all sherry casks, so I can't be sure, but my money is still on Glen Grant. Particularly when there have been quite a few similarly aged Glen Grants released by other independent bottlers recently, which probably means a broker has gotten their hands on a parcel of 30-year old casks. That lovely malty fruitiness and a near-perfect balance of cask influence & spirit character at this age make this anonymous Speyside single malt a real winner.
I'm yet to taste anything from Thompson Bros that has been anything less than lovely, and this is no exception. Great stuff!
Cheers!
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