Malty and young on the nose, intense fruit notes of pear, lemon and mango, fresh herbs, grape sugar and a light note of wine, muesli with a spoonful of honey.
Nice nose but you should like "young" malts - a little sweeter and a little bit more herbaceous than the "standard" batches, but there is a certain similarity. Nc'nean has a very promising and unique character.

The taste is even sweeter with a lot of honey and grape sugar. The alcohol tingles a bit but provides intense aromas. Cereal muesli with candied lemon pieces, caramel, vanilla sugar and a little oak. At the back you can feel the herbs again and a subtly spicy oak. Very pleasant and full - unfortunately very young - there is also a slightly alcoholic and metallic youth.
This is particularly annoying at the end of the medium-long finish.

Stronger and more aromatic than the standard bottling, but somehow the "batches" appear more mature and have a stronger character of their own. Hence a pure collector's bottle for fans of the distillery. If you really want to get to know Nc'nean, you should take the standard.

The high ratings can be explained by secondary market sellers and unfortunately the base is powerless against it. It only helps to educate people through reviews.

In Germany, the introductory price is € 79.90 (RRP).

Issueprice October 2021 the 25th: ~66,00 GBP

(e.g.: https://www.royalmilewhiskies.com/nc-nean-quiet-rebels-annabel-48-5-70cl/)

Leading Lady

I think you can safely say that I am a fan of Nc'nean. I've tasted the first ten batches and it's become a bit of a daily sipper. So accessible and pleasantly priced that I can drink it daily without any problems. But they recently launched the so-called Quiet Rebels series – an ode to the distillery's employees, each time vatting something special – and start with the distillery’s leading lady: Annabel Thomas. In addition to the classic bourbon and STR casks, she now also chose Tokaji and sherry casks. Tokaji is the oldest type of wine made in Hungary. Very excited to try this.

Nice nose! Sweet on red fruit and melon, but also some peach and apricot come peeking around the corner. That's followed by some herbal notes that give it real depth: camphor, candied ginger and some sage. Patience! It's not done yet. Some sweet sandwich dough appears, along with a touch of mustard seeds and a leaf of mint. Amusing and tasty.

It starts off friendly and sweet, just like the 'regular' batches, but that is soon drowned out by the wood's spicy notes. Pepper, ginger, tannin... but in a good dose so that the malt tastes spicy without becoming oaky. Fine piece of craftsmanship. Some jam of quince and dried apricots appear, supplemented with a late touch of cloves. Gets nice and warm, mind you.

The finish is softly drying and nicely spicy. Ginger and black pepper. Red fruit on the deathbed, along with a hint of origin chocolate and even some pale rum.

The picture is perfect once again. Revolutionary packaging, fair price, good story and excellent whisky. Kudos!

Quietly does it

It’s been hard to ignore the Nc’nean distillery output over the last few years. Bottle aside, which is a work of art and should be applauded for taking whisky branding and packaging in a brave and exciting new direction, I think the product is some of the best and most worthwhile young scotch out there from the slew of new, home grown distilleries. Their Batch One was solidly put together and tasted better than it’s youthfulness would suggest and with each successive batch, they just got better; Batch Five was a belter imo. And it has a recognisable house style too. The Dr.Swan DNA is there, the wine casks and STR staves techniques marries well with the fruity new make and the result is a scotch which is delicious, rich for its age, vibrant and, if not complex, then full of interesting flavours and odours and all wrapped up in a pleasantly oily texture. It’s a bloody good start in my book.

So, as the distillery ages and grows and the halo of batch one fades, it’s important to keep the interest in the brand going, great core expressions only go so far these days. The collector/speculator is always on the hunt for the next great white whale. And so, like Bruichladdich’s valinch series, Nc’nean have launched their Quiet Rebels. Enough waffle. Get in my glass.

Nose it and it’s a pungent affair. There’s a lot going on and it’s one of those inviting noses that keeps you whacking your beak back into the glass time and time again to work out what is going on. Initially I got a fist full of doughy, bready notes mingles with pickled ginger and some sage. Hot sawn oak, mustard seed, then pungent wine notes, that flush of a red wine like heat and red fruits, sweet, syrupy melons and other yellow fruits, some camphor and a sauterne-like wine note in the mix. Strangely it sounds from the description it should be a sweet nose but, the whole is far more spicy and dry and edges towards a neutral, bitter wood aspect with dry peppermint far in the background. It’s quite a complicate affair to be sure and over half an hour in the glass it really does jump about. It’s worth spending time with the nose on this one. (EDIT: As another also pointed out - there is a Tonka bean thing to this whisky, very interesting).

In the mouth and it’s a surprisingly like the nose. The sweetness arrives up front and then is joined very quickly by wood and ginger and pepper and red wine like soaked wood note, candied ginger syrup, toasted oak is like the backbone in the mix, sitting behind every flavour. Sweet, hot peppery, oaky, lovely amounts of ginger, red apples, greengages arrive. The Tokaji barrels also become more noticeable on the palate as you have a few more drams, it’s very enjoyable feeling as this this presence grows, it feels like a perfect pairing to the distillate’s fruity character. Going back to the nose after a good few sips and you think there is a sulphur note to it (like Higland Park), quince jam on burnt toast and some feint bbq meatiness, there’s also a rum agricole thing going on. And clove oil. Mmmm. It’s very warming and, if not perfectly composed, it is complex and interesting and certainly perfect for cold winter days. It makes me think this is the kind of whisky that begs to be added to a cup of mulled wine - it just seems a natural fit.

Finish is big and spicy and drying and rich with flavours. The ginger and oak and red fruit all flap about amusingly, there’s a certain chocolate and raspberry bush note that appears more at the end than is obvious at any other point and a little black pepper. It’s young and fighty but not to its detriment. If anything it tastes like a a dram of possibilities. It’s daring and interesting and equally one worth sharing as one worthy of sitting and chewing over for a few hours when the family has gone to sleep and your after an hour of sanity.

So. Quiet Rebels. Obviously a flippers delight as is anything that is first in a series but from a drinkers perspective this is an exciting whisky from a ‘new’ distillery. It’s not easy by most standards but also not forgettable either. It’s well worth tracking down if you can get it for under £100 as I think it shows the intention of a new distillery to take risks and play the game their way.

‘The squeaky wheel gets the oil’, as they say. Sometimes deservedly so.

Nc'nean Quiet Rebels Annabel 48.5%.

30ml sample at home, Nov 2021.

Pale golden orange.

Aroma has some 'tired' oak initially, maybe even a little vegetal, faintly chocolatey, fruit 'n' nut chocolate and Turkish Delight, a little white wine-like peachiness. Maybe slight strawberry (covered in chocolate). Can’t say I was expecting that chocolate note. Mostly chocolate buttons with hints of fruit and tired oak.

Taste is clean and easy, sort of ‘milky’ and vaguely minerally like limestone (not that I've ever eaten limestone), the spirit really doesn’t have a rough edge up-front although the heat does show up as a big salty crescendo on the swallow. Some vague fruity esters towards the finish but always quite basic, minerally and salty.

I have been very impressed by my first experiences of Nc'Nean ... but this one not so much. The lovely Nc'Nean spirit isn’t shining through, the cask influence isn’t that appealing, and the flavours aren’t that cohesive. A bit of a shame, but it’s not a bad whisky really. Below average though, in my book. 3.125/75

Despite the abv already being low, I added a drop of water out of interest. With water and a wait the aroma becomes more crystalline and less chocolatey. More of the white wine note appears. Also pork with apple sauce.

Taste is now super soft. The depth of flavour has dropped out but the soft flavours are suited to the lower abv. I didn’t save much of my dram for water adulteration – not enough to dissect and describe the flavours adequately - but I feel as though I would have enjoyed this more if it were bottled at a slightly lower strength. Benefit of the doubt score : 3.4/81

This is the 1st release in the Quiet Rebels series, dedicated to the distillery's employees and showcasing more experimental releases than the standard batches.