🥃 Whisky Auctioneer

Nice whisky, not very surprising, solid, sweet- and fruitiness. Not too hefty but certainly not thin either. Pleasant.

my first Nc'nean! Am curious what this new distiller will bring. After tasting, i must say i am quite happily surprise by this new distiller. Looking forward for more!

New Kid on the Block Nc’Nean is a new distillery (originally it was christened Ncn’Ean, but no one could pronounce it, so it was changed to Nc’Nean), named after Neachneobhain, the Celtic queen of spirits and protector of nature, something this distillery feels is very important. They grow their barley organically and use only renewables for energy. Even the packaging, both bottle and tube, are made of recycled material. The first spirit came from the stills in 2017, after a process put together by Dr Jim Swan, who passed away two weeks before. In 2020 the inaugural release ‘Ainnir’ at cask strength was launched (1320 bottles), immediately followed by this general release – batch 1 – at drinking strength. By the way: bottle no 1 of the Ainnir was sold for charity and broke all records with a winning bid of no less than £41.004! This Batch 1 sold out pretty quickly. It’s a vatting of 14 casks, 65% STR red wine casks and 35% former bourbon casks. The nose is young and playful, but not immature. Sweet malt, caramel and nougat, flowery honey, wilde flowers and a hint of pomelo. Fresh and fruity and reminds me a bit of a Lowland scotch. The malt is nicely creamy and softly spicy on white pepper and liquorice. The playfulness returns on the palate with sweet malt and hazelnuts, but now mostly citrus fruit in the guise of pomelo and lime. There is a lovely minty freshness. Very summery. The finish is medium long, pleasantly warm and fruity on more citrus. This is very good for a three years old malt. And I must confess, I love the packaging. Looks absolutely stunning in my book. Originally this was around 55 EUR, but alas nowhere to be found anymore. Bring on batch 2.

71-80 – Fine, like to drink by time

Nose-82; Taste-85; Finish-83.

Very nice sweet, fruity nose, aporicoses, also caramel, sweetness. Then slightly tingling and fruity in the mouth, finish rather short but all very pleasant, especially for a 3-year-old. Makes you want more and older.

A convincing first, which has more to offer in all respects than you would expect from a three-year-old.

Not that bad for a 3 year old malt.

Aged for a third in bourbon barrels and two thirds in STR wine barrels, this whisky brings us very cereal, slightly honeyed notes. Then comes a sweeter dose reminiscent of Liège syrup, with a (too) woody finish for my taste.

The nose is very promising. But this is also the best thing about the whisky. I am getting curious about batch2.

21/22/21/21

Quite good for a new 3yo release.

Quite a promising whisky. It isn't quite there yet, but this is certainly a very good start!

I think this distillery's debut was extremely successful. Strong, pure spice and grainy tones show the origin of the distillate. I really think I can taste the 'organic'.

A very solid first impression for a 3yo. Showing great potential of quality of distillate and cask management is to be held up. Try a H2H with Bladnoch 10, very similar. Young Nc'Nean comes across more like a Lowland malt than what is produced at their neighbor Tobermory. Looking forward to future versions. Lovely packaging and bottle btw.

So I liked the Waterford much better this year as a new release. The youth is too dominant here for me. Very bubbly in taste, artificially sweet, artificial banana gummy bears, and slightly cheesy. Somehow it's not mine today at all ...

Well, what can I say? I do not get all the noise about this expression and new distillery. Yes it is in line with sustainable goals, which I support one 100% . But why should I pay 110 Euro for a 3 year old whisky which is to me not worth more than let's say 84 points?

Nc'Nean Organic Single Malt 46%. Batch 1. Consumed Dec 2020. Spiritous banana-mango- tropical fruit smoothie aroma ... maybe some green apple and pineapple, some floral notes. Taste is nicely weighted, spicy, clean but characterful fruity spirit. I was keeping expectations low because I find most new distillery releases are over-hyped immature spirits thrown into an over-active and probably not properly emptied cask, but this far exceeded those expectations! Woody but not overly so, great balance of the components, doesn't taste young at all. Woo that's surprisingly great. For a 3 year old that's genuinely awesome. It will be interesting to see how longer cask aging affects the character of this clean, fruity spirit - I imagine that less will be more when it comes to cask influence here, but I look forward to trying a few to find out! 3.8/90

Hey, that's really exciting! I approached this malt with relatively neutral expectations (after a relatively large Lindores Abbey failure), but was quite surprised! Only 3 years young and already has a lot to offer (delicious). I'm looking forward to the malts that will follow in the future, I think there is a lot of potential behind it.

It’s always fun to try something new from a new distillery. This young Nc’Nean was brought to market at a young age. Let’s see how it performs. This whisky delivers quite some cereal aromas but, given the age, also a nice interplay of flowery and heathery honey aromas versus a nougat and vanilla sweetness combined with young bananas and some peach. Feels a bit engineered but overall solid first release.

https://www.whiskynotes.be/2020/ncnean/ncnean-organic-whisky/ Nose: playful, sweet and fruity. Nectarines and peaches mostly, with added notes of yellow apple. In the background there’s a grainy / grassy layer. A candied note (maybe marshmallow) and orange peel. Smooth fragrant aromas as well, like honey and lightly floral oak. Mouth: sweet again (peach, vanilla custard), with obvious young notes, grainy touches and a big citric side with mint. A bright springtime character, smooth and simple. Then you get the usual charred oaky note of an STR cask, with aniseed, liquorice and allspice. Finish: not too long, still sweet, very malty and fruity. Nc’Nean is a well designed spirit with clear Dr. Swan markers. Very much in line with other young STR-based whiskies, albeit with a brighter, light-footed floral touch. For a 3 year-old this recipe is hard to beat, and I confirm it does work well as a highball. On the other hand I personally hope the longer ageing spirit and the yeast experiments result in more complexity and something unique (I’m not an avid highball drinker).

light color, similar to white wine, pleasant smell: vanilla, fruity (mirabelle / pear), somewhat buttery, taste: disappointing, not harmonious: little interesting aromas, cardboard, forest floor, fruits, medium-length finish, not again. Irrelevant. Conclusion: whiskys that the world doesn't need. Not again!

Not very enticing or interesting, and I'm not a fan of the wine cask notes. Review: https://youtu.be/3viRjkDJsbo

Young and very promising! One of the most exciting new distilleries on the market. This dram is quite light on its feet and somewhat closed. A little water helps to discover a sweet harmony of flavours. Not very complex or expressive yet, but it certainly shows it's worth.

Very good for the young age Citrus, toffee Does not stay very long. I thing it is good to mix.

I like the Nc 'Nean Organic Single Malt a lot. I would certainly not have guessed on a 3-year-old whisky in the blind tasting, because the whisky is already much more mature, especially in the nosing. I like the strong vanilla and fruit aromas here, which are complemented very well by floral and grainy aromas and a subtle spice. On the palate, the organic doesn't look young either, the flavors are well balanced. The whisky is very round. However, I would like the flavors to be a bit stronger here. For me these are a bit softened. This also applies to the departure. Overall, however, very good for a 3-year-old whisky, the recipe works perfectly (especially the partial maturation in STR casks) and I'm curious to see how the whisky will develop. The start was successful.

Whisky or Gin? Nc'Nean Organic batch 1 which is bottled at 46% ABV, it is non chill filtered and has no added colouring. It is just over 3 years old and is matured in a mix of STC (shaved, toasted, charred) wine cask and bourbon, 65% and 35% respectively. I picked this bottle up for £45 which is roughly in line with other new distilleries like Ardnamurchan and Kingsbarns. The Nc'Nean distillery hails from the highland region and has been distilling since 2013. They provide fully organic products and there distillery aims to be as environmentally responsible as possible. With all that in mind, let's see how the whisky is. Nose: A lot of botanical fragrant scents from the get go. Rather floral and almost like walking in a field scattered with flowers. Delicate and light as well. Something comes through that I haven't really experienced in whisky, Play-Doh (this is a mailable putty that children play with). There is definitely some barley and rolled oats as well as some subdued cranberry. Pleasant enough but it doesn't come across as whisky, or at least Scotch, almost like a foreign whisky or, dare I say it, gin. Palate: Rather fleeting flavours of red berries which is withdrawn and soft. A little bit of a charred element with quite a considerable amount of wood coming through, a little too dominant. A touch of creamy vanilla and then a real young grassy element comes across. Some nuts towards the end. Finish: Medium in length which is a surprise as I expected it to be short and withdrawn. More wood. Very wood driven. Possibly some white wine coming through and a little bit of citrus. Conclusion: The £45 is steep for this whisky and I fully understand this is a new distillery with a lot of overheads to pay however the quality is just not there compared to the likes of Kingsbarns Dream to Dram or Ardnamurchan's recent releases. So, for me, the whisky isn't worth the price. I can't recommend trying it although I would recommend trying as many whiskies as possible and trying a sample of this may be best, don't pay secondary market prices. Obviously, I wouldn't buy another bottle of this. I would like to try some of their cask strength options and down the line maybe their aged stuff but from this youthful, frankly under developed, whisky there is just no defining characteristics or anything to write home about. So it has to be a whisky bin. To see the full review on YouTube click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY9Xj6fApSI&t=40s&ab_channel=WhiskyWhims My Scoring Process: My process is simple. I rate it on three factors: Is it worth it, would I buy it again and would I recommend it? I will the determine if the whisky is a whisky win or a whisky bin. A whisky can have 2/3 of these factors and still be a whisky win. Usually, anything lower than 2/3 is a whisky bin.

Very light and creamy in style. Rather moreish.