Nc’nean whisky is a relatively new kid on the block, especially in regards to the long history of whisky in Scotland, and with youth in its side Nc’nean is hoping to change the way people think about whisky from Scotland.
The Shout recently spoke to Nc’nean’s Founder, Annabel Thomas about her journey, and her passion to create a truly sustainable whisky, a whisky that works in harmony with the planet.
Nc’nean will soon be available in Australia through Proof & Company, another business that fundamentally cares about sustainability, so we took the opportunity to speak to Thomas about the history of Nc’nean, what Australians can look forward to with this whisky, and what the name is all about.
Watch the video below to find out more about Nc’nean Whisky:
During our chat Thomas talked in more detail about the flavour profile and what she wanted to see and taste in a whisky.
“I felt like there has been so much cask innovation in the last 30 years; finishing casks, different cask types and all the rest – which is great because it’s a lot of flavour. But I felt like the focus on the spirit had maybe somewhat been lost. We spent a lot of time focused on the spirit before it even got to a cask, and our objective was to make something that was delicious when it comes off the still.
“We were aiming for something very pure and clean, very fruity and delicious with lots of depth and flavour right from the get-go. We do that by tweaking every single element of the production process. It starts with the organic barley, but then we use two yeasts that ferment for a very long time and we distil very slowly, we have high cut points on the stills.”
This gives the Nc’nean team its new make spirit and then the cask program becomes important and the team wanted casks that would really enable the spirit they were making to fully shine, despite being quite young.
Dr Jim Swan worked as a consultant with the Nc’nean team develop the whisky and its cask program, so it was Jim who pushed for the use of STR Wine Casks: STR stands for Shaved, Toasted, Re-charred.
Thomas said: “We put our lovely new-make into three different cask types and we mix those cask types together when we put it into the bottle. We have STR Wine Casks that come from Spain, then we have Ex-Bourbon barrels and we also have some Sherry casks.”
She added: “Jim was very instrumental in the cask types and he very much worked on the shaved, toasted and re-charred red wine casks, that was his idea. But the proportions we fill into is slightly different to the proportions we bottle into at the end and that blending process and the development of the Nc’nean taste profile has been done by myself and Matt, who is our blender, over the last four years.”
Nc’nean will be available through Proof & Company at the end of March, with a focus on premium on-trade venues and whisky bars.