Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 343: Nc’nean Organic Single Malt – Batch 1

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky vlogger, tries the first Nc’nean organic single malt. Nc’nean is a new distillery, one that holds nature in high regard. They grow their barley organically and use only renewables for energy. Even the packaging, both bottle and tube, are made of recycled material. In 2020 the inaugural release ‘Ainnir’ at cask strength was launched (1320 bottles), immediately followed by this general release – batch 1 – at drinking strength. This Batch 1 sold out pretty quickly. It’s a vatting of 14 casks, 65% STR red wine casks and 35% former bourbon casks.

https://youtu.be/yzGNedffeTY

I’ve always called Bruichladdich – ‘Punk Rock Whisky’ and they’re still yet to deter me using that phrase.

The Classic Laddie: Bourbon, Sherry and Wine casks. A conglomerate of vast flavour at 50% ABV, Non-Chill Filtered & Natural Colour. It’s a powerful Islay that doesn’t have to use peat to get its point across, a wonderful thing to say in itself. Bringing together so many different and wonderful styles of Scottish whisky into one bottle is what this has always been about; they’ve succeeded.

https://youtu.be/s2ds6asw8lc

ralfy review 845 Extras – The opinion that matters !

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 342: Port Ellen 40 Year Old 1979 – 9 Rogue Casks

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky vlogger, tries his most expensive whisky ever! In May last year, Mark tasted his best – but unfortunately also most expensive – Port Ellen ever. It was the 39 years old The Spirit Safe, bottled in 2018. This second edition in the Untold Stories – 9 Rogue Casks – is even more limited. There are only 1380 bottles in the world. It was presented during the (virtual) Feis Ile 2020 and is a vatting of 9 casks which were found to ‘hold unusual flavour characteristics that stood out from the typical Port Ellen distillery character’ and was deemed unsuitable for the needs of the blenders at the time. But what an elegant lady. A veritable diva.

https://youtu.be/d90KtMHm9wQ

ralfy review 845 – Old Pulteney 15yo @ 46%vol: (2020)

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 341: Dalmore 8 Year Old 2009 single cask for Taiwan

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky vlogger, tries a single cask Dalmore. Mark’s friend Joseph from Taiwan, president of the Connoisseur Society there, regularly selects single casks. This is one from the warehouses of Ian MacLeod: a young Dalmore from 2009 that was bottled at cask strength in 2018. Beautiful label, by the way. But Mark cannot read anything on the backlabel. It’s Chinese to him – literally. Shot on location at the Ancient Roman Theater in Orange, France.

https://youtu.be/duwg46NLsQQ

Back once again with the renegade master. Fettercairn. A sixteen year old. I went in pretty tough on the 12YO, but here we are with a bottle that is nearly double the price. It has a host of casks (bourbon, port and sherry) and some funky barley, as well. But is it any good?

https://youtu.be/8hoejDtlwfM

Welcome to this weeks episode of the show in which I’ll be looking at some of the latest releases in the new presentation of Hunter Laing Hepburn’s Choice range.

https://youtu.be/oKpAJeUjHHg

ralfy review 844 Extras – Is older whisky better ?

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 340: Royal Brackla 12 Year Old 2006 for Taiwan

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky vlogger, tries a Royal Brackla. Close to Cawdor Castle – famous from Shakespeare’s Macbeth – lies the Brackla distillery, founded by Captain William Fraser of Brackla in 1812. Since 1835 she calls herself Royal Brackla after receiving a royal warrant from King William IV. This single cask from 2006 was selected by Mark’s Taiwanese friend Joseph Wang and sports the very lovely WeiWei Fong on the label – if you do not know her, she is a Taiwanese top model and Instagram sensation. Not that this means anything for the quality of the liquid of course.

https://youtu.be/U3wz1amLnlQ