Hi Matt. Thanks for dropping by! Are we close to finding out what other spirit recipes you have planned? ie. other than the 'Light and Fruity' stated for all the current batches?
@@WhiskyLock Yes. So "Light and Fruity" is 80% of our production, this is a super clear wort, two yeast blend with tight cut points at the end. The other recipes don't have descriptions yet, but to give you an overview, 10% of production is "old" recipe, which is a more traditional style with a single yeast strain and slightly wider cut points. The final 10% of production changes every year, and we use this time to run yeast experiments. We've used all sorts of combinations and the results have been very interesting so far ("rum yeast" has been a personal favourite of mine, loads of tropical fruit flavours). Old recipe stock won't be ready for some time yet, by design, but the first of the yeast trials could be ready early next year based on what we've tasted so far. Let me know if you've got any other questions at all 👍
Thanks for the info Matt. So many distilleries treat the community with suspicion, not even wanting to reveal broad details like what casks have gone into a vatting. Like we're going to take that information and recreate the whisky at home :-) you should know that the community appreciate details and it goes a long way to make us both feel involved and want to be involved 👍 Can I ask what you're trying to achieve with the old style? Is it old style as in very mature, as in traditional or both? What is your goal with that one? Also, will there be any peated Nc'nean? Or interesting cask maturations coming up?
@@WhiskyLock My pleasure. "Old" recipe is a single yeast strain recipe with wider cut points, designed specifically for longer term maturation (10 years plus). There's no specific plan for this liquid as of yet, as we don't fully know what it's going taste like! Our first set of casks from this recipe have recently turned 4, so I'll probably let you know what we're going to do with them in 6 years time. Unless something drastically changes, there will never be peated spirit produced at Nc'nean. Cutting up natural carbon sinks and burning them to add flavour to our spirit would go against our sustainability goals in quite a big way. As for casks, all I can say at this stage is "yes". We're looking to release one or two more limited bottlings later this year, hopefully around Autumn. Let me know if you've got any more questions, happy to share what I can 👍
Interesting point about the sustainability of peat. That question has been brought up a couple of times on distillery tours that I've been on and the tour guides have always said that the amount of peat they use is very small and entirely sustainable... It certainly doesn't look that way when you see peat cuttings though. I've always suspected that what they mean is that it would be sustainable if they were the only distillery that needed peat. I'm from East Anglia where the sustainability of peat has been undeniably disproven. The Norfolk broads are flooded peat works that were totally depleted just meeting the fuel needs of the local area in the middle ages. The peat has been a long time returning... It'd be great if you could find a more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to peat for your spirit. I expect the SWA might object to that on grounds of being nontraditional though. I thoroughly look forward to an old style Nc'Nean some time around 2027! Thanks for the replies and info.
Ah nice ! Was wondering about these guys for a while. Thanks for giving it a go. Great point on the disjointed marketing with a decent naming convention. I hope someone at the distillery takes notice. Organic labels are usually ok, if it’s legit, yes. I do love their art on the bottle itself. Can’t wait for a first taste of it. At least it’s NCF and no coloring. Great intel and recon. Much appreciated. Your homework is some of the best I have seen so far. Heavy style is more my style, so looking forward to trying anything I can, but really tough to get in Maryland. Briny dry notes sounds good with light and fruit. Only STR I’ve tried is Kilchoman, which I am sure is A LOT different. Great well rounded review! How about just a couple drops of water, regardless of ABV? Thanks for other comparisons too. Cheers mate.
Thanks Telex! Yep ncf, nc and organic. They're certainly doing everything right at Nc'nean. I think any negative reviews they're getting is all down to the fact that they are very new and their whisky so far is quite young but I expect great things from this new distillery. STR casks are very interesting. Can be hit or miss but they definitely have their place and I think they're actually a much more interesting and useful development than the more common quarter casks or virgin oak. Like the heavy charred casks used for Ardbeg Scorch, an STR cask often has an effect on the whisky that's not what you might expect. I must admit that I like my whisky strong. If something is
I fully support the ethos of Nc’nean and really want to like their releases but unfortunately they’ve been a bit of a miss for me thus far, style over substance . Can’t put my finger on it but I suspect they may have to rethink their cask policy moving forward and perhaps also some other elements of their processes.
I don't entirely disagree with you... but you do have to remember that this is very young whisky from a very new distillery. Bearing that in mind, I do think it's a small step above when you usually get from a brand new 3yo single malt. But yes... it is young! I'm confident that there will be bigger and better things from NC'Nean in the future. We'll just have to do a little waiting :-) As for changing their cask policy and processes. I suspect that they may scale back the STR casks as they lay down more mature stock. I'm also excited to see what the alternatives are to the 'light and fruity spirit recipe' quoted on all the batches released so far. I'd love to see a heavily peated, bourbon or hogshead matured Nc'Nean.
@@WhiskyLock Agree, it may well be the case that this distillery starts to shine with a decent bit of age under their belt, there are plenty of other distilleries that are fairly unimpressive at a young age that really shine with a decent number of years in the cask e.g. Lagavulin, Port Ellen and Clynelish. Time will tell. However, I still feel their early releases haven’t really got the buying public on board and they haven’t reacted well to the very mixed reviews they’ve had. I think one of the issues they have is that the initial start up costs for new distilleries are so vast that you really need to hit the ground running otherwise you’re going to need very deep pockets and reaching the milestone of releasing your first 10 or 12 year old where your product really might start to shine will seem like a very long way away. On the plus side at least they haven’t gone down the road of asking for ridiculous prices for their initial releases and that’s to their credit.
There are definitely distilleries who have a style that suits age and not youth. Lagavulin as you say. I'd say probably Jura too, which makes it all the more frustrating that they insist on young releases. I can't imagine how tense those first 3yrs of running a new distillery must be. Watching your invested capital go in to the millions and not making any money at all. It's easy to see why many turn to making gin or selling first edition casks to investors, etc. And then when they do have 3yo whisky, the temptation is to shift it asap to claw back money and run out of stock... On the other hand you have distilleries like Arran who I believe released a core range 18yo after being open for 19yrs! Arran is one of my favourite distilleries and they've done an amazing job... but they clearly had some financial advantages over other distilleries to be able to hold onto their stock like that :-)
Thank you for the lovely review, so glad you're enjoying it!
Hi Matt. Thanks for dropping by! Are we close to finding out what other spirit recipes you have planned? ie. other than the 'Light and Fruity' stated for all the current batches?
@@WhiskyLock Yes. So "Light and Fruity" is 80% of our production, this is a super clear wort, two yeast blend with tight cut points at the end. The other recipes don't have descriptions yet, but to give you an overview, 10% of production is "old" recipe, which is a more traditional style with a single yeast strain and slightly wider cut points. The final 10% of production changes every year, and we use this time to run yeast experiments. We've used all sorts of combinations and the results have been very interesting so far ("rum yeast" has been a personal favourite of mine, loads of tropical fruit flavours). Old recipe stock won't be ready for some time yet, by design, but the first of the yeast trials could be ready early next year based on what we've tasted so far. Let me know if you've got any other questions at all 👍
Thanks for the info Matt. So many distilleries treat the community with suspicion, not even wanting to reveal broad details like what casks have gone into a vatting. Like we're going to take that information and recreate the whisky at home :-) you should know that the community appreciate details and it goes a long way to make us both feel involved and want to be involved 👍
Can I ask what you're trying to achieve with the old style? Is it old style as in very mature, as in traditional or both? What is your goal with that one? Also, will there be any peated Nc'nean? Or interesting cask maturations coming up?
@@WhiskyLock My pleasure. "Old" recipe is a single yeast strain recipe with wider cut points, designed specifically for longer term maturation (10 years plus). There's no specific plan for this liquid as of yet, as we don't fully know what it's going taste like! Our first set of casks from this recipe have recently turned 4, so I'll probably let you know what we're going to do with them in 6 years time.
Unless something drastically changes, there will never be peated spirit produced at Nc'nean. Cutting up natural carbon sinks and burning them to add flavour to our spirit would go against our sustainability goals in quite a big way. As for casks, all I can say at this stage is "yes". We're looking to release one or two more limited bottlings later this year, hopefully around Autumn.
Let me know if you've got any more questions, happy to share what I can 👍
Interesting point about the sustainability of peat. That question has been brought up a couple of times on distillery tours that I've been on and the tour guides have always said that the amount of peat they use is very small and entirely sustainable... It certainly doesn't look that way when you see peat cuttings though. I've always suspected that what they mean is that it would be sustainable if they were the only distillery that needed peat.
I'm from East Anglia where the sustainability of peat has been undeniably disproven. The Norfolk broads are flooded peat works that were totally depleted just meeting the fuel needs of the local area in the middle ages. The peat has been a long time returning...
It'd be great if you could find a more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to peat for your spirit. I expect the SWA might object to that on grounds of being nontraditional though.
I thoroughly look forward to an old style Nc'Nean some time around 2027! Thanks for the replies and info.
Good indept video, was looking for a review on this bottle and you did not disappoint. Looking forward to watching more reviews of yours
Thanks Vince. It was a fun one to review. It's always nice when a new distillery does things a little differently. Hope to see you around. Cheers.
Ah nice ! Was wondering about these guys for a while. Thanks for giving it a go. Great point on the disjointed marketing with a decent naming convention. I hope someone at the distillery takes notice. Organic labels are usually ok, if it’s legit, yes. I do love their art on the bottle itself. Can’t wait for a first taste of it. At least it’s NCF and no coloring. Great intel and recon. Much appreciated. Your homework is some of the best I have seen so far. Heavy style is more my style, so looking forward to trying anything I can, but really tough to get in Maryland. Briny dry notes sounds good with light and fruit. Only STR I’ve tried is Kilchoman, which I am sure is A LOT different. Great well rounded review! How about just a couple drops of water, regardless of ABV? Thanks for other comparisons too. Cheers mate.
Thanks Telex! Yep ncf, nc and organic. They're certainly doing everything right at Nc'nean. I think any negative reviews they're getting is all down to the fact that they are very new and their whisky so far is quite young but I expect great things from this new distillery.
STR casks are very interesting. Can be hit or miss but they definitely have their place and I think they're actually a much more interesting and useful development than the more common quarter casks or virgin oak. Like the heavy charred casks used for Ardbeg Scorch, an STR cask often has an effect on the whisky that's not what you might expect.
I must admit that I like my whisky strong. If something is
To me organic grain is most important.
No pesticides!
While I'm not sure that 'organic' affects the flavour it is nice that they're being responsible to the environment and nature 👍
I fully support the ethos of Nc’nean and really want to like their releases but unfortunately they’ve been a bit of a miss for me thus far, style over substance . Can’t put my finger on it but I suspect they may have to rethink their cask policy moving forward and perhaps also some other elements of their processes.
I don't entirely disagree with you... but you do have to remember that this is very young whisky from a very new distillery. Bearing that in mind, I do think it's a small step above when you usually get from a brand new 3yo single malt. But yes... it is young!
I'm confident that there will be bigger and better things from NC'Nean in the future. We'll just have to do a little waiting :-)
As for changing their cask policy and processes. I suspect that they may scale back the STR casks as they lay down more mature stock. I'm also excited to see what the alternatives are to the 'light and fruity spirit recipe' quoted on all the batches released so far. I'd love to see a heavily peated, bourbon or hogshead matured Nc'Nean.
@@WhiskyLock Agree, it may well be the case that this distillery starts to shine with a decent bit of age under their belt, there are plenty of other distilleries that are fairly unimpressive at a young age that really shine with a decent number of years in the cask e.g. Lagavulin, Port Ellen and Clynelish. Time will tell.
However, I still feel their early releases haven’t really got the buying public on board and they haven’t reacted well to the very mixed reviews they’ve had.
I think one of the issues they have is that the initial start up costs for new distilleries are so vast that you really need to hit the ground running otherwise you’re going to need very deep pockets and reaching the milestone of releasing your first 10 or 12 year old where your product really might start to shine will seem like a very long way away.
On the plus side at least they haven’t gone down the road of asking for ridiculous prices for their initial releases and that’s to their credit.
There are definitely distilleries who have a style that suits age and not youth. Lagavulin as you say. I'd say probably Jura too, which makes it all the more frustrating that they insist on young releases.
I can't imagine how tense those first 3yrs of running a new distillery must be. Watching your invested capital go in to the millions and not making any money at all. It's easy to see why many turn to making gin or selling first edition casks to investors, etc. And then when they do have 3yo whisky, the temptation is to shift it asap to claw back money and run out of stock...
On the other hand you have distilleries like Arran who I believe released a core range 18yo after being open for 19yrs! Arran is one of my favourite distilleries and they've done an amazing job... but they clearly had some financial advantages over other distilleries to be able to hold onto their stock like that :-)