Nc’Nean Organic Single Malt
Official Bottling, Core release | 46% ABV
Score: 6/10
Good stuff.
TL;DR
Good, but more expensive than it tastes
It’s easy to be fussy
We tend to be a fickle, fussy bunch, us modern whisky geeks. And even more so when we’re on a budget. Most of us have had a bad experience with at least one bottle.
This can result in us avoiding a certain distillery, cask types, or maybe entire whisky regions altogether. At least for a while.
Let’s be honest, times are hard and many see our spending power dwindle month after month, so a swing and a miss can be a painful thing these days. Few things in this hobby are worse than buying a dud and having to see it gather dust on your shelves, while others inform you of a great, new, tasty malt - often being sold in the price range of said dud.
It’s things like this that might lead us (or at least me) into contemplating and over-thinking many purchases we want to make. And there’s a bigger problem for young, new whisky enthusiasts like myself; although it is a bit of a champagne problem.
When browsing the shelves, be it actual physical shelves at our local retailer or virtual shelves online, we find ourselves faced with such a bewildering amount of distilleries and a seemingly endless variety of permutations to choose from, that picking the next bottle ends up being a battle between our wallets, FOMO, and common sense.
“What am I in the mood for? What is getting good reviews? I should maybe try a distillery I have no experience with yet. Do I try their unpeated or peated distillate? What about their triple distilled one? And do I then pick the bourbon cask matured, sherry cask matured, or a vatting? Oh, or maybe an eccentric cask finish I have no experience with yet?”
And what if, like me, you only got into whisky some five years ago? I haven’t and couldn’t possibly have been able to try a myriad of established, reputable distilleries and expressions that are among the most ubiquitous and well-known. Now, I don’t necessarily feel the need to have every distillery and bottle ticked off on my Big Whisky Checklist, but I would like to try all those well-weathered names and brands for the experience, so that I can add them to my big data-bank of smell and flavour and use them as reference points.
But I can’t, because A) I lack the financial capacity, B) I lack the storage capacity, and C) I get distracted.
I get distracted by the new kids on the block. Because even though price increases, over-taxation, and rampant premiumisation are - still - the talk of the town, I have become convinced that I’m living in a golden age of whisky.
Can you imagine being there when Ardbeg, Springbank, Glencadam, or Brora brought out their very first whisky? When they were searching for the perfect fermentation times, vattings or ages to put their whisky out at, in their first couple of years? Can you imagine your own palate maturing from nothing alongside what would one day become legendary malts, from spirited youthfulness to well-balanced maturity?
I look around and can’t contain my excitement over the fact that we are living in exactly such a time. New distilleries have rolled onto the shelves in droves over the past few years, often with the intent of simply making the best and most flavoursome malt they can, by enthusiasts, for enthusiasts.
And so, even though I’m missing out on what some would call staples of our whisky journeys, I find myself skipping over them like puddles.
Lagavulin, Talisker, Ben Nevis, Glendronach or absolutely anything from Glengoyne? I have to admit that I have never tried some of those and have had only one (disappointing) experience with some others. And I’m sure some of you will think: “You’ve never tried Lagavulin 16 before? How is that possible?”
Well, that’s when leaning on the experience of others comes in. When I hear writers from Dramface, YouTube whisky reviewers and other enthusiasts independently agreeing that it is a shadow of its former self, or has at least fallen off somewhat, combined with the fact that I often can’t find it for under €70, and on top of knowing that it’s presented at 43% ABV, chill filtered, and contains artificial colouring, why would I invest in it?
Now sure, if I have the opportunity to try some or buy a small sample, I will happily stick my nose in it; but a full bottle? Sitting next to it on the same shelf, for that same price, there’s a Kilchoman Batch Strength calling my name and winning my attention.
Natural colour, un-chill filtered, higher ABV and integrity-forward. All those good, yummy words that I have learned, from relying on recommendations of those more well versed than me - and then experiencing the difference first-hand, all add up to a better dram. So, guess where my money is going.
And so, while many of these legacy distilleries with reputable names are so far off my radar I don’t even consider them, I do find my euros rolling towards Ardnahoe, Ardnamurchan, Lagg, Lochlea or Glasgow Distillery, to name but a few. And I’m quite sure I’m not the only new-gen whisky enthusiast that goes about buying this way.
I just want to be here for it. I want to try all the young distillates in their sometimes brash, always vibrant, spirit-forward infancy and grow with them over the decades and find out which ones will be adorned with a cult status by the next generation of whisky geeks. And I have only been disappointed once, which I’ll get to in a second.
Again; I’d like to try all those established malts. It’s just that I only have one liver, and as my grandfather always says; “Every Euro you earn is only yours to spend once. Do so wisely.”
I’m sure a lot of the holes in my whisky experience will be filled sooner or later out of sheer curiosity, but even then, this could read as a bit of a warning to the folk making decisions at the big, corporate conglomerates (as if they’d read, let alone care about my ramblings on here). We, the new-gen drinkers, are more and more focused on quality over quantity, tired of contrived value and marketing bilge as we’re already drowning in that in our daily lives. To top things off; social media, YouTube, websites like Dramface, and internet forum reaction chains are our playground. That’s where we roam, and we will find reliable sources and where quality can be found.
There are a lot of well-established distilleries that are, from our early beginnings, far off our radar. We’re running towards the new harbingers of quality and we’re not being presented with any valid reasons to look back over our shoulders. To quote Andy Grammer: “Honey, I’m Good.”
Review
Nc’Nean Organic, Single Malt - Batch BR12, 100% Organic Barley, 43% ex-bourbon, 55% STR, 2% Oloroso, 46% ABV
€60 (£54) paid, wide availability
Speaking of new wave distilleries, I felt it was time to dig into this bottle of Nc’Nean’s flagship single malt that has been sitting unopened on my shelves. By shelves I of course mean whatever nook or cranny I can find that has space for a bottle. It’s been somewhere in my stash for over a year, but over the course of this summer I’ve been repeatedly confronted with what has become known in my household as ‘The Gremlin’: the STR cask-matured Nc’Nean from Series 2 of the Thompson Bros Mystery Malts.
I had sampled some Nc’Neans before, including this core expression and really enjoyed how fruit-forward they were. Early 2024 I decided to buy a full bottle of this core-ranger to open later. So taken aback was I by the Mystery Malt, that I simply had to know if my memory of the official bottling was correct. And so, eventually, this was opened and enjoyed over the summer.
When I was about a third of the way down, while having a barbecue, my best friend and I decided to make some cocktails with it. This is something I never do, but I’ve been inspired by my fellow writers who have over this past summer provided us with some lovely reading on their drams and the cocktails they made with them.
We tried a few that I found on Nc’Nean’s own website, with tasty results. The bottle took more than a fair hit that evening, and I realised that I had to save some to do some tasting notes, give it a fair review, and most importantly for me, see if the memory of my past experiences with Nc’Nean was serving me right.
Score: 6/10
Good stuff.
TL;DR
Good, but more expensive than it tastes
Nose
Quite soft and well-behaved, considering its youth. Apples. A pleasant sourness of slightly unripe orchard fruits, like pears too. It smells a bit nutty as well, specifically hazelnuts and walnuts. Something I’ve already come to find more pronounced in the STR Mystery Malt as well. While this appears as a harsh note in said Gremlin, here they form a supporting, deeper layer. Apricots. Dried forest fruits. With the addition of water comes a sharper sweetness and hints of strawberry flavoured gummy sweets.
Palate
A slightly creamy sourness. Stevia sweetener. Artificial sweetener. Both not in an unpleasant way. The finish is a bit tart and drying, like with a drier white wine. Skin of white grapes in there too. The addition of water brings a sweeter layer of ripe red fruits to the arrival, and tones the sour and nutty notes down a bit. With or without water it’s an enjoyable thing, so go wherever your palate preferences lie or wherever your mood takes you. It’s tasty, and fairly simple.
The Dregs
This malt is noticeably different from a few of the aforementioned samples that I had that were different batches of this core range Organic Single Malt. Those were definitely sweeter and much more peachy on the palate. They were earlier batches for sure, and the recipe might have been tweaked somewhat, or maybe more mature stocks have changed the outcome of the same recipe somewhat.
I am positively reassured about what comes out of Nc’Nean distillery. That Mystery Malt was, in my personal opinion, just an unlucky cask, for me. This official release was a perfectly competent, nutty, creamy, sour-sweet, youthful little dram.
If I had to point out its biggest weakness, it would be the price. I paid €59,95 for this and couldn’t find it any cheaper. I don’t think it’s a €60 whisky. For that price, there are tastier, more interesting drams available. Now it’s not bad enough to warrant a point off, but it does make you think twice when confronted with it.
Having said that, it doesn’t strike me as greedy opportunism. After all, this is an organic whisky from an organic distillery. I also like that they’ve invested in their production and run their stills from 100% renewable energy and this, amongst myriad other eco-focused practices, doesn’t come cheap. Knowing that softens my view on the price a little bit.
Would I replace it though? Probably not, at this moment in time. It’s good, but I’ll go and explore more of what the whisky world has to offer before coming back to this. Unfortunately for Nc’Nean and so many more like them, there’s just too many other whiskies that I haven’t tried yet.
I will keep an eye on Nc’Nean though, because I know they have a different version of their spirit specifically aimed at coming into its own when matured for longer and, when the time comes, I’m sure I’ll still be curious enough to give it a try.
Score: 6/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. MM
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