Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 446: Nc’nean Huntress

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, tries Nc’nean’s latest release. This time Anabel and her team opted for a slightly different composition than for their regular batches, namely 61% STR Red Wine Casks and 39% Ex-Bourbon casks. It is also bottled at a slightly higher alcohol percentage. This is the spring whisky par excellence of this young, dynamic distillery that now boasts quite a few loyal followers. The special thing about this whisky is that it was produced with three different yeast strains, one of which is normally used for the production of rum!

https://youtu.be/jP-SNYQG7f8

Welcome to this weeks episode of the show in which I’ll be taking a look at a selection of Ardnamurchan releases.

https://youtu.be/ge1y9GzET_s

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 445: Nc’nean Batch 8 vs Batch 9

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, puts two young malts head-to-head. Although Mark has a dram every single day, it’s still hard to keep up with the pace of releases. At Nc’nean they are already at batch 15 or something, while today Mark opens his bottles of Batch 8 and Batch 9 for the first time. As always, it is a combination of 65% STR red wine barrels and 35% classic bourbon barrels. Again bottled at 46%.

https://youtu.be/WszMRWRkAwM

https://youtu.be/P42YiFPlrxc

Today I’ve had the joy of meeting (over Zoom) with Morgan McDermott from Filey Bay Whisky in Yorkshire.

Setup in 2016, Filey Bay is a field to glass distillery based on the east coast of Yorkshire. Comprising a range of:

Their Flagship bottle – Personal Favourite.

IPA Cask Finish – Toffee’d and toasty.

Moscatel Cask Finish – Honey in a glass.

STR Rijoca Cask Finish – Spicy plums.

Peated Cask Finish – Subtle saltiness.

A huge selection of flavour to choose from and a brief walk through of the distilleries history and future. My apologies for lack of my camera, Zoom just didn’t want to play fair with me.

Filey Bay has quickly become a must have summer style for me as a result of this tasting, and hopefully this will get some of you into this wonderful English distillery.

Cheers!

ralfy review 929 Extras – Time in the glass.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 444: Starward Single Cask #1855 for Whivie.be & The Bonding Dram

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, bottled a single cask from Down Under. Mark is a fan of Starward, that’s known. And when he got the chance to buy a barrel a few weeks ago, he didn’t let it pass him by. You should know that Starward used a first fill Apera barrel from McWilliams for this single malt. McWilliams has been producing Apera, the Australian version of sherry, made from the Tinta Roriz, Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca grape varieties for years. The barrel – number #1855 – was filled in May 2016 and when bottled yielded only 222 bottles at a cask strength of 59.3%. Fun fact: when Mark tasted a sample taken on October 12, 2021, the strength was 57.1%. Yes, in Australia the strength increases!

https://youtu.be/jgfRTxfM8rw

Welcome to this weeks episode of the show in which I’ll be looking at the range of whiskies called ‘Haran’ that are produced by Destilerías Manuel Acha in the Basque Country.

https://youtu.be/NhwsqepO_7c

ralfy review 929 – GlenAllachie 13yo @ 48%vol: (Madeira cask finish)

https://youtu.be/Hd_Il10uA9I

Benromach. Why aren’t we giving Benromach the praise it deserves? Can’t find Spiringbank or Longrow? Why would you spend some horrendous secondary price on a bottle of 12/15YO when you can buy most of Benromach’s range for less than £80? Utterly baffling.

Recently retried the 10YO and fell head over heels, easily up their with Arran 10 in terms of taste and value. This I bought through a marketing email, which typically never entice me. But…first fill bourbon casks, 46%, and a type of barley I’ve never heard of for less than £50? Sold. Incredibly tasty, but did need some time to open up.

I have also reviewed this previously with John Drinks, see that video below.

https://youtu.be/yrrUNYrGPTQ

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Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 443: Starward Left-Field

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, goes Down Under. In September 2021 he was – for the second time – a guest at the whisky festival in sun-drenched Toulouse. One of the booths represented Starward  (with a ‘d’ at the back, not to be confused with his favorite film series, please), the relatively young distillery from Australia – founded in 2007 and run by the sympathetic and we would almost dare say visionary David Vitale. This malt matured in French oak, barrels that had previously raised red wine. A strange idea. Unexpected. Something they describe in Australia as ‘left-field’, hence the name for this very affordable whisky.

https://youtu.be/Z37OlVkcPEY