anCnoc Peter Arkle Edition

The nose of this is just as the title states but it is really intense! On the palate this is like chewing some buttery toffee, with mild liquorice hints.

Left for a few mins now and can detect a hint of apples with a few pear notes too. Toffee is still the overriding characteristic though. This has a really rich velvety mouthfeel that is absolutely delicious. The finish is so long, chocolately and smooth. What a wonderful whisky. Love it.

Just not long ago I posted news about the release of this dram from AnCnoc (april) , and here we are tasting the latest release (if you do not count the 35 year old which was long due). I really wanted to taste this one, and as it was not sold anywhere near me (and RMW do not ship to Israel), I was so glad to have noticed Lucksz twitting about an Arkle twitter tasting, and hopped on the bandwagon, as to speak. It had been quite a few months since the last AnCnoc twasting, and every release form this lovely distillery is very welcome. They just release good malts, not a lot, but every bottling is worth trying. So, last Thursday (only one day after a wonderful English whisky Co. tasting online [more on that later this week]) I sat down at 2100 Israeli time and joined fellow twitter friends on a lovely tasting of this dram. An evening of fun, and meeting good mates online, old and new whisky lovers.

Basically this AnCnoc is something a bit different as it is a vatting of only sherry casks (Fino) and is aged between 6 and 12 years, and bottled as NAS. All other AnCnocs are usually ex-bourbon casks, and this one is really something different from Knockdhu, and really interesting (at least from a whisky Anorak’s POV).As always this whisky is not filtered, and not colored. Just as we liked it. Thank you AnCnoc!!

Nose: This one is sweet : starting very sherry like , with a lot of honey, barley sugar, honey coated nuts, baked apple, toffee, wee vinegar (as in apple vinegar), dried apricot and banana bread.Much more thicker than the usual AnCnocs in bourbon casks, feels younger but robust nose!

Palate: Sweet sweet: Palate is OILY and very mouth coating. thick sort of, viscous. palate warming. a great winter companion : very sweet with honey. Tons of sultanas, in addition to the sweetness, some peppery / gingery spiciness going on here, some caramelized apple.

Finish : Milk chocolate, dried sultanas, spice.

A very different AnCnoc, richer, thicker, and lovely. I quite liked it as a sherry head, and it is rather interesting what AnCnoc has to offer in the Sherry department. I know some people did not like this one as much as they liked the 12/16 year olds, but IMHO this is great stuff. Lovely after meal dram, and really satisfying. Good work AnCnoc and lovely cooperation with Peter Arkle. The only downside is that only so many bottles are out there, and most are allocated to RMW, and it’s not easy getting hold of a bottle (for me at least). If you are an AnCnoc fan, go get this one, it’s so different but I bet you’ll like it.