OB 12yo vs Thompson Bros. 10yo | 46% & 53.7% ABV

It’s worth remembering that not every whisky drinker becomes a whisky geek

If I look back at all the pictures on my iCloud over the past decade or so, I notice a couple of things. One is that in recent years I have become one of those parents who takes far too many pictures of their child. Another much more relevant phenomenon are the snapshots of my whisky journey and how it has developed over those years.

In those earlier days, my spending occur entirely in supermarkets, along with the occasional purchase from Amazon. Independent retailers weren’t on my radar at all, and I’d never even heard of independent bottlers. I have a picture from Christmas Day 2015 of my collection at that time, which I think illustrates the point well, when the closest thing I had to an independently bottled whisky was a 33 year old Highland single malt from Lidl bottled under the Maxwell brand name. I believe that may have been Glenfarclas, and was £40 in around 2012, if I remember correctly. It was okay, but nothing special – age isn’t everything. I also notice that 12 of the 13 Scotch whiskies in the shot have something else rather telling in common. They are all under 46% and chill filtered, and they probably all had colour added. Ardbeg is the only one there which I believe was natural. The expression name is hidden in the photo, so I’m not sure if it was a 10 or Uigeadail — I know I had both around that time.

I didn’t know or understand anything about chill filtration or added colour back then, so none of that mattered to me. What’s more, out of those 13 Scotch whiskies, 10 of them were also at the minimum 40% ABV, the exceptions being the Talisker, the Lagavulin 16, and again the Ardbeg. Most of the whiskies are from big brands that we tend to go for when we are earlier in our journey. I spent more than 10 years at this end of the market, enjoying whisky but never connecting to it far beyond the supermarket staples. As you can see, I even dabbled with a little bourbon — which is something I do to this day — despite never having found one which wowed me. (As all the best stuff seems to be Stateside, I have been happier to stick with Scotch for the most part.)

Then a few years ago I stumbled into ‘whiskytube’ quite accidentally when I decided to look for opinions on a certain bottle – I can’t even remember what bottle it was. Like so many others, I first watched videos that came from a certain bothy in the middle of the Irish sea. This led to me discovering other channels and review websites, and before I knew it, I was on the hunt for further knowledge — and more and more bottles.

Lockdown in 2020 exacerbated this further, when we were all stuck indoors with nothing much to do, and I was in the fortunate position of still getting paid but not having much to spend my money on. Rather than putting my sensible hat on and saving my cash, I decided to invest heavily in my passion for whisky, which is something I definitely do not regret at all. I needed that little bit of serendipity to take my enjoyment of whisky to the next level. I’m sure many happily pass through life with their supermarket staples, completely unaware of what else is out there.

Initially I was still buying more official bottlings than independents, which is probably the right way to go about things, but it didn’t take long for me to discover the wonders on offer from the indies, and for the ratio to start to move closer towards those over the proprietary bottles. Single cask expressions, mostly at natural strength, were in many cases delivering much more flavour than I was finding from the distillery themselves. (In fairness, they often cost more too, which is something we always have to factor in.)

When I think back to the time when I first started to learn about independent bottlers, I remember thinking that these whiskies couldn’t possibly be as good as the output that the distillery bottled under their own labels. Why would they sell their best stock to someone else to make money from? As I discovered more, I realised this actually wasn’t the case. For example, the cask sold may have not had the flavour profile the distillery was looking for to vat together with other casks and create a consistent whisky. Alternatively, it may have been purchased as new make and matured either at the distillery or in the independent bottler’s own warehouses.

I started to develop trust in certain independent bottlers who had been consistently well received by other whisky fans and with whom I'd had positive experiences regarding both value and quality of product. Signatory Vintage, Cadenhead’s, and North Star were probably the first of these, but more recently the Thompson Brothers, among others, have been added to that list. There’s excellent value on offer from both their SRV5 blended malt and their TB/BSW blended Scotch, and they have plenty more available for the single cask flavour chasers — at competitive prices for the sector, too. Their reputation for bottling excellent whiskies, and — it has to be said — for rather attractive labels that look great on the shelf and on Instagram, has resulted in many releases being subject to a ballot process for anybody wanting to secure a bottle, although no such process was required for me to get the particular bottle I am reviewing today.

The validity of reviewing very limited single cask whiskies is something I occasionally see questioned. Often they are already sold out or not available in many countries. But I think that even if you cannot buy the bottle being reviewed, a trail of positive or negative reviews relating to a certain bottler can be a great way to help decide whether or not you want to buy a future release from them. I know that’s one of the factors I have I used to decide which ones to go for.

I’ve been enjoying Loch Lomond quite a bit recently. The slightly funky, lightly peated standard 12-year-old release is a great bang-for-your-buck whisky. Then there was the 2020 Open Release, which sent quite a few of us down a Chardonnay yeast rabbit hole, with a certain YouTuber by the name of Aqvavitae bottling an excellent single cask for his Patreon subscribers. Loch Lomond themselves then released their own distillery-exclusive Chardonnay yeast expression on their website (now sold out). The combination of fruitiness and effervescent fizz in all three produced a unique experience that we don’t find with other yeast strains. Interestingly, despite the 2020 Open release bottled at 46% being the one where it all started, the two single cask versions released subsequently have been a cut above in my opinion. This is relevant because I am here comparing a 46% vatting of Inchmurrin with a natural-strength single cask version.

Today’s review doesn't involve any Chardonnay yeast, but we do have two whiskies under the Inchmurrin banner: one is an independent bottling from a refill ex-bourbon cask and bottled at 10 years old, and the other is the official 112-year-old release (a vatting of a number of casks, including first-fill, refill, and re-charred ex-bourbon). Inchmurrin is the name for whiskies produced at Loch Lomond through their rather unique straight necked pot stills, which give a distinctly fruity character to the whiskies. E150a is still used in this whisky and in the majority of Loch Lomond’s output , and as our very own Wally mentioned in his look at the last three Open releases from the distillery. The colourant was reintroduced into the 2021 and 2022 editions due to a negative consumer reaction to the colour of the liquid in the all-natural 2020 release (which shows just how much more consumer education is required before many distilleries will stop using it).

If I hadn’t happened upon whisky channels and reviews, I would have still been ignorant of all this, which is important to remember when we judge producers too harshly for adding rich colour with a drop of caramel. We understand what’s going on, but the majority of the market never develops the level of passion we share. And after all, eye appeal is buy appeal.

Review 1/2

Loch Lomond Inchmurrin 12yo, Official Bottling, 46% ABV
Paid £33.95, RRP £45

The bottle I am reviewing has a bottling code of L229822 and a date of 25/10/2022, which I would assume is the date it was bottled. It retails at £45 but can often be found on offer for less.

Nose

The first thing I notice is a waxiness, which is not something I remember getting from my last bottle I owned. It’s sweet red apple mostly, with a touch of pear present too. I also get fresh, floral linens, vanilla, light caramel, and a little freshly cut grass.

Palate

The wax from the nose translates to the palate, as do plentiful sweet apples. I then get a prickle of peppery spice and slightly drying oak, before vanilla starts to come forward with apple peels and Pontefract liquorice cakes. The oak becomes a little more bitter and slightly charred, which continues into the finish, with more of the liquorice, apple peels, and cream.

The Dregs

This official release is absolutely a good whisky. I’m on my second bottle and will probably buy a third not too long after this one is finished, which is as good an indicator as any that I really enjoy it. I also feel the quality of this batch is better than the last one I had, which I think I would also have given a solid 6/10. We don’t give half scores on Dramface, otherwise this would be a 6.5. I paid £36 for my bottle, and I find it is regularly discounted to that sort of price in the UK, with the retail price at a not unreasonable £45.

It’s not the most complex whisky experience, but what it does deliver it does so really well, and the wax note is an added bonus for me and something I really enjoy finding in a whisky. My only minor criticism is that the bitter charred oak I'm getting on the palate, as it develops, overpowers those lovely sweet fruit notes just a little — but I am nitpicking.

Score: 6/10

Review 2/2

Loch Lomond Inchmurrin 10yo, Thompson Bros. 2012, 53.7% ABV
Paid £65

Nose

A small drop of water and time in the glass will reward you and unlock more flavour. It’s very bright and fruity. It gets right up your nostrils and fills them with mango, apple, tinned pineapples, and acidic grapefruit, along with barley sugar, vanilla, icing sugar and farmyard notes.

Palate

It has a nice oily texture on the palate, with sweet apple juice and lemonade initially. Shortly after, sour grapefruit and lime juice emerge on the mid-palate, which works nicely in contrast with the sweetness. There’s a good dollop of creamy vanilla, caramel, peppery spice, pebbly earthiness, and oak. The sour fruit notes linger in the finish – particularly the grapefruit — along with light oak, cream, and a continuing lip-tingling peppery spice.

The Dregs

This release from the Thompson Brothers is the type of whisky I have moved towards the further along my whisky journey I have travelled. I’m looking more and more for those completely untouched, pour-it-out-of-the-cask, pass-it-through-some-sort-of-light-filtration-system-to-get-most-of-the-cask-bits-out, just-put-it-in-a-bottle experiences. There’s raw, naked appeal to a whisky straight from the cask, and it doesn’t get more naked than refill ex-bourbon. The tropical fruit on the nose and the mix of the sweet and sour fruit on the palate work really well here. I’m finding this to be an extremely moreish dram — which the vastly decreasing fill level in the bottle is testament to.

Score: 7/10

Tried these? Share your thoughts in the comments below. RT

Other opinions on these:

Whiskybase (12yo OB)

Malt (12yo OB)

The Whiskey Novice (12yo OB video)

Got a link to a reliable review? Tell us.