Thompson Bros Bunnahabhain (Moine) 11yo

The Maker

Phil and Simon Thompson are well known to whisky nerds as the managers of the Dornoch Castle Hotel in the northern Highlands - about an hour up the road from Inverness. After a successful ‘kickstarter’ in 2017 they established Dornoch Distillery in a shed and set about becoming an independent bottler to keep the income coming while maturation was underway.

Their philosophy from the start has been to make traditional whisky using traditional techniques. The problem has been this resulting in high costs and a low yield, meaning that they are currently selling their single malt in 50cl bottles that cost around £100. For most whisky drinkers, myself included, this isn’t a good value proposition so I have no intention of picking one up until the situation improves. Although I fear, the way prices are going, that the market will move to them quicker than they will to it. Despite these costs the distillery and independent releases are doing well enough to fund a new ‘Dornoch South’ expansion which has recently received a green light from planning authorities.

Alongside these releases the brothers have also won acclaim by producing a series of blended products such as the SRV5 and the TB/BSW. While these names seem a little confusing at first the SRV5 stands for the ‘Station Road Vat 5’ which is a 1200 litre oak vat filled with at least eight year old malt whiskies from across Scotland. Every so often they remove 800 bottles worth from it for sale, leaving around 450 litres to be topped up with new malt. This is effectively a solera system which means it will progressively be filled with older and older whisky as the batching process continues. In contrast the TB/BSW stands for 'Thompson Bros Blended Scotch Whisky', meaning that it is made from a mixture of malt and grain whisky from across Scotland that has been aged for at least six years. These are both sold at well under £50 and in 70cl bottles. Having tried both they represent good value for money and are well worth checking out. This is especially true of the SRV5 which sits nicely alongside products such as the Campbeltown Loch.

The Expression

My first purchase from the Thompson Bros online shop is this 11yo Bunnahabhain. This is sold under the Moine title which means exactly the same thing as Staoisha when Bunna is sold to independent bottlers: that it is heavily peated. It spent all eleven of its years in a first-fill bourbon barrel that yielded just 260 bottles at a cask strength of 57%. Put simply this is a bit of beast and goes well with a bit of water. As you’d expect it’s of natural colour and has not been chill-filtered.

As with all Thompson releases there is some original art work on the label. This one appears to be of someone playing with a VR headset which does nothing for me at all. At times I have had to remind myself that I should not be buying a whisky based on how much I like the picture on the bottle, but we all have our weaknesses. The other thing to point out when buying from the Thompson Bros site is that prices are often quoted without VAT (which is highly unusual for the UK). This does mean that you need to remember to add 20% to any price quoted, plus a significant delivery charge. From memory that turned a £80 sticker price into just under £110 all in. Which seems a little excessive.

For those not familiar with Bunnahabhain it’s history can be traced back to 1881 with its roots in the original Islay Distillery Company. After almost a century of changing hands and changeable success it was the launch of the core 12yo expression in the late 1970s which firmly placed the distillery on the world stage. These days Bunnahabhain is under the ownership of Burn Stewart/Distell Distillers which also own Deanston and Tobermory (which also release Ledaig). The core range has been expanded to include several additional age statements and no-age expressions, alongside an ever-changing roster of special editions – often from exotic casks sourced from around the world. These have combined to give Bunnahabhain its deserved reputation as an exciting, yet traditional Islay distillery which means you're likely to find several bottles on any Islay loving whisky shelf.

The Neck Pour

From the first sniff it's clear that this is a very different Bunna to what I’m used to. There’s a heavy oily brine to it that’s far closer to a Caol Ila or ever Laphroaig than it is to the classic heavily sherried Bunna profile you get from releases such as the core 18yo. That's obviously down to it being a peated release, but it serves as a remarkable demonstration of just how versatile Bunnahabhain spirit can be.

But it's not just that oily brine, there are far lighter notes that build in prominence the longer it’s left in the glass. These seem to be linked to the first fill nature of the cask that alongside char that combine to bring mountains of honey, beeswax and citrus. But there's still more. Something stronger which I can only place as being a little like smoked aloe vera. That said, this isn’t a whisky you can comfortably sniff for too long as the high ABV bites back with a vengeance.

The taste backs up all of the above with a fiery intensity. This isn't the warm hug of sherried goodness that typifies so much of Bunna's output. It's much more of the slap in the face I'd expect from a south coast Islay. That said, once you get over that initial slap you start to get common bourbon flavours of rich burnt sugar and vanilla char. Yet I have to confess this dram isn’t giving me a huge amount more depth on the palate at this point. It feels like it needs to sit on the shelf and oxidise for a couple of weeks before it rounds off enough to give me its best.

The Body

The more I drink of this bottle the less sure I am as to whether I like it. Those smoked aloe vera notes have only grown with time and end up being something I find a little sickly. Perhaps that’s more down to a few bad experiences I’ve had with Mescal, rather than an issue with the whisky itself. What is also very noticeable is just how viscous the spirit is in the glass. It’s not something I would normally mention but the thick oiliness is really noticeable and leaves a coating that lasts long after the dram is drunk.

Alongside that smoked aloe vera I’m also getting a lot more ash and tobacco on the palate. Then come the rich citrus flavours of grapefruit. Despite me still being unsure of it, it’s become a lot more drinkable now than it was six months ago. It’s as if the harsher ethanol notes have dissipated and left something much more rounded than what it once was.

In addition there’s also still plenty of fresh beeswax, polished leather and that classic bourbon char on the finish.

Final Thoughts

As I come to the end of this bottle I am still challenged by it and can’t definitely say whether I like it or not. It seems to be a different answer every time I return to it. To help me I offered some of it to my local whisky group and it really split the room, coming third out of twelve on the night with a mixture of some very high, but also some very low scores. It seems like you either really love or hate this based on a single dram.

Whichever way I fall on a particular day I have enjoyed that challenge. As much as I love something as pleasing and comfortable as a Bunna 18yo, I have just as much space on my whisky shelf for something far more difficult to engage with like this. For me that’s the unique role that independent bottlers can bring to the market that a core release could never do. This cask was clearly a bit of an outlier and is unlikely to have been integrated into a peated vatting that worked for a mass market release.

I doubt this will be found in many places a year after release other than auction sites. If you happen across it and have £100 to spare on an interesting experiment then I’d encourage you to give it a try. It certainly hasn’t put me off trying more from the Thompson Bros range.