Thompson Bros: NcNoch (Scotland: Blended Malt: 5 Years: 48.5% ABV)
Visual: Pale yellow grain with fast thick streaks from the spirit.
Nose: Vanilla. Green grapes. Light chalk dust. Mineral water. Heather. Grassy. Water ands more minerally notes.
Body: Tingly spirit. Chalk touch. Heather. Peppery. Brown sugar. Water adds slight honey and a sticky feel. Lightly oily. Water adds fruity peach and apricot.
Finish: peppery. Slightly dry. Lightly creamy. Dry toffee. Mineral water. Water adds sticky feeling but drying. Light soot. Green and red grapes.
Conclusion: This is an interesting one. Its initially quite tingly with the alcohol, so took a few moments to open up – as always a few drops of water helped with that. What you get then is a still quite dry, mineral touched whisky along with a present grassy , heathery character. Other people called this a fruity whisky but for me it felt a more savoury, dry, easy drinking thing.
Now As time went on, and that drop of water was added, it did bring out some fruitiness I will admit but below that is always that dry mineral filled style. Lots of flora influenced notes, and that is my main impression of the whisky -heather and grass are already mentioned and matches the dry mineral style well. It isn’t the most exciting style, but is very gentle and easy to drink.
For me it feels like it needs a slight bit extra on top of that to really bring it into its own. It has nice notes,a very solid base to work from and those fruit notes and a touch of sweet brown sugar do show some range, but lacks that extra spark that makes it a whisky I would say you must get.
Background: An other Independent Spirit tasting! This time a Thompson Bros line up. This was the first and is a blend of 80% NcNean and 20% Dornoch. By their website total of 8 yeasts were used to produce this spirit; 3 at NcNean, including a rum yeast, and 5 Brewers varieties in Dornoch. Yes I am pretty much directly quoting most of that. So this is an all organic blended malt whisky. Which if I remember the chat at the tasting is a UK first, though I was drunk so take my memory with a pinch of salt. Not had NcNean single malt, but was impressed with the small amount of Dornoch I have been able to try. As well as the usual disclaimer about being at a tasting so not able to do my best notes, also I had serious hayfever before this. However I was dosed up on my antihistamines and drops so seemed to be able to smell and taste reasonably so decided to go ahead with doing notes here (I have tried Thompson Bros: NcNoch once before so could compare to my memory to see how I was doing).