Thompson Bros: 1969 + 2017 (Scottish Whisky Based Spirit Drink: 6 Year Old: 40.1% ABV)
Visual: Bright deep gold. Fast thick streaks come from the spirit.
Nose: Vinegary. Nail polish. Sour cider apples. Oak. Water makes it … still smell like the same terrible notes.
Body: Smooth. Kind of empty. Dry toffee. Bready. Water adds more notable toffee.
Finish: Empty. Unleaven bread. Pear drops. Some water adds nail varnish. More water makes fatty butter and some toffee.
Conclusion:This is so deeply disappointing. So, as I put in the background, this is basically very old ( not technically) whisky, combined with young (not technically) whisky for a mix of great aromatics and body. The best of old and new. It should be great, right? Nope. Dogshit.
The nose is, to put it bluntly, fucking terrible. Vinegary meets nail polish., It is fucking dire. Considering the interesting aromatics of the 52 year old spirit is listed as why they made this, I am wondering where those things went, as this is dire.
The body is better, in that it is pretty much empty and nothing. Yep, I am saying actual jack shit nothing is better than what came before. Sooo, not good is what I am saying. You may not have caught that due to the subtle way in which I implied it.
Water makes an actual attempt at the very basics of what you would expect from a whisky, In the body anyway. The aroma is fucked any which way. You finally have some toffee, so, erm now some flavor. Congratulations, with time and water it finally manages part and only part of the most basic bits you need to be whisky like.
As an experiment it is interesting.
As a (technically not) whisky it is dogshit.
Background: Oh I was so excited for this one. Technically not whisky, but close enough I am shoving this in the whisky section for my own sanity. So what is it? Well the vast majority (68.4% of the blend) is made of what once was whisky blended in 1969 and at a now epic 52 years of age has fallen below the 40% abv need to be whisky, so is now a spirit drink. This was a bunch of casks the Thompson Bros bought at risk and found it light on the body but really enjoyed some of the aromatics so decided to try and do something with it. 19.4% of the blend is their first ever batch of single grain …well what would be whisky, but they had not been officially licensed then so it is technically also spirit drink anda 6 year old one at that by my calculations – so despite the fact it brings the abv back up over 40% it cannot be called a whisky, even though if it had been made while licensed it would count best I can tell. Finally 12.2% of it is a 2013 distilled unnamed Islay whisky to add some more body. So I was very excited for this – I often find old whisky – stuff over 30 years, tends to be a bit light for me, but interesting – so the idea of very old whisky, matched with young whisky for some more body, sounded a very cool idea to me. Of all the (kind of) whiskies in the independent spirit Burns night tasting, this was the one I was most excited for
