Stocking Filler 11 Year Old Sherrywood Blended Malt & Thompson Bros 8 Year Old North Highland Blended Malt (Amazon Exclusive)

Stocking Filler 11 Year Old Sherrywood Blended Malt

Region: Speyside

ABV: 46.0%

Price: £34.95 

Stocking Filler 11 Year Old Sherrywood Blended Malt is a festive whisky exclusive to Royal Mile Whiskies and Drinkmonger. This expression is a blend of sherry cask-aged single malts, with the youngest component have been aged 11 years. Bottled at 46% ABV, it is non-chill filtered and free from artificial colouring.

Nose

The nose opens with lots of sweet sherry aromas up front, fruitcake, candied ginger, raisins, molasses, maple syrup, honey nut cheerios, chocolate coated hazelnuts, and a slice of buttered brown bread. There's not too much spirit character here, it feels fairly well covered up by the sherry, but it's good quality sherry wood. Going back, we're getting red currants, red grape Shloer and a bit of youthful spiritness in the background.

Palate

The palate opens with strawberry laces, pink peppercorns, raspberry puree, cinnamon and nutmeg, a little ground ginger, toffee bon bons and some caramel sauce. There's also chocolate coated raisins, hazelnut praline and cherry cola. There's more alcohol bite than expected for the ABV, there's a background pepperiness that rides through to the finish. The mouthfeel is reasonable, there's a cola-syrup like texture here. Going back, we're getting cocoa beans, blackcurrant cordial and a little marzipan.

Nose (with water)

The reduced nose has a little more acidity up front, sherry vinegar, orange peel, underripe cherries, but there's still those richer baking spices and ginger aromas coming through afterwards. Water seems to have removed some of the richness for us. We don't think the nose benefits much from adding water.

Palate (with water)

The reduced palate mirrors the reduced nose in the loss of some richness and introduction of a more acidic component. There's cherry juice, macerated strawberries and some of that sherry vinegar appearing. The mouthfeel has also taken a bit of a hit, so we'd avoid watering this down.

Conclusion

Simple, sherried, and quaffable. One that will please many over the festive period. It's not groundbreaking but it's not trying to be. We're looking forward to enjoying a few drams of this over the Christmas period.

Score: 7.5/10

Value

Excellent value, though it would have been even better if it had been bottled at cask strength.

Thompson Bros 8 Year Old North Highland Blended Malt (Amazon Exclusive)

Region: Highlands

ABV: 42.9%

Price: £34.95 

We couldn’t find much on this release other than it was created using a trio of North Highland Malt Whiskies that were matured for over 8 years before being blended, rested and bottled.

Nose

The nose opens with sweet barley sugars, a bit of chalk, cold butter, gooseberry jam, dusty cupboards, grapefruit rind, candle wax and and a little yeast, reminiscent of bread dough. There's not too much cask influence here, it's fairly pale (not that colour matters really), and it's quite spirit forward. Time and air brings out white chocolate, sawdust, fabric softener and fresh apricot.

Palate

The palate opens with candied orange peel, fruit gummies, sugar syrup, lime zest, white chocolate and a little wet cardboard. There's a fair amount of upfront sweetness, alongside a bit of white pepper spice that lingers into the finish. Going back, we're finding some undercooked dough, barley water, peach juice and sugar paper. The mouthfeel is expectedly thin with the reduction to 42.9%, but there's enough flavour coming through to balance that out. The finish has a reasonable length with subtle sweet oak and wet paper.

Nose (with water)

The reduced nose feels more yeasty, bready, generally younger in character than pre-dilution. There are still some sweet barley sugars and light fruit aromas, but you can avoid adding water to this, it's already very drinkable at the presentation strength.

Palate (with water)

The reduced palate has a bit more richness upfront, toffee pennies, a bit of milk chocolate, digestive biscuits, shortbread, alongside sugar syrup and barley. There's still a bit of a white pepper note on the finish, but it's sweeter and richer, the water has definitely invigorated some of the cask flavours for us, however the mouthfeel and finish have taken a bit of a hit.

Conclusion

The whisky here is good quality as usual, but the message is definitely more of a talking point for this dram. We're on the Thompson Bros side, support your local independent spirits merchant if you can. Saying that, we'd be lying if we didn't use Amazon in our day to day life, but we do try to buy whisky from the little guys when possible. Anyway, this batch of Highland blended malt is just short of the first batch for us, however it's definitely drinkable and we'd have another dram.

Score: 6.5/10

Value

We’re confident this release is priced as affordably as an independent bottler could realistically manage.

• 10 - Perfection. One in a million
• 9 - Outstanding. Exceptional whisky.
• 8 - Great. Would seek this out.
• 7 - Good. Quality whisky.
• 6 - Above average. Happy to have a dram.
• 5 - Average. Drinkable whisky.
• 4 - Below average. Passable.
• 3 - Flawed. Noticeable negatives.
• 2 - Defective. Significant faults.
• 1 - Offensive. Pour it out.

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