.ancnoc - tushkar

Designed for the Swedish market, but somehow, we got hold of a bottle. The anCnoc distillery normally uses a non-peated malt for their whiskies, but they have been experimenting with various levels of peatyness and named the results after various peat-cutting tools.

.ancnoc - rutter

A rutter is a type of spade, used to size and separate peat blocks. It is also the name of this single malt whisky produced by the Knockdhu distillery in the Eastern Highlands of Scotland. The connection is easy; the normally unpeated malt the distillery uses has been dried with peat smoke for a change, which results in a pleasantly light, smoky dram.

.ancnoc - 1993

When we were at the Knockdhu distillery, we had tasted several anCnoc whiskies, every one of them sweet and gentle experience. We somehow received a miniature of the 1993 vintage which brought us back to the fond memories of that particular day.

.anCnoc - 12

40% abv, €30, single malt

Nose: dry white wine, fresh fruits, apples, pears, citrus fruits, vanilla.
Palate: dry, vanilla, apples, pears and citrus
Finish: dry, citrus, fresh, slightly bitter and metallic
Mark: +++++
Conclusion: Not quite bad. She could be categorised as a 'feminin' whisky, possible would score a little better with a higher abv.

.anCnoc - Peter Arkle - Bricks

46% abv, €60, single malt, non-chill filtered, natural color

Nose: medicinal, hints of leather and burned matches. sweet vanilla, fruits, juicy red apples, stewed pears, raisins, nutmeg and cinnamon
Palate: sour, like unripe hard green apples and pears, vanilla, white pepper, metallic
Finish: rather artificial and metallic, leather and burned matches, overripe fruits.
Mark: +++++

Conclusion: Overall, the nose brings out the best characteristics in this whisky, but the palate and finish throw her around to some very eccentric corners in the flavour field, and I am just not a big fan of that.

More info: Peter Arkle is a New York based graphic artist, whose drawings remind me a little of Andy Warhol's work. He has done some artwork and labels for anCnoc whisky in the past, where this label is the third in the series that carries his name, and is inspired by and linked to something at the distillery.

This whisky has matured in ex-Bourbon barrels and ex-Sherry butts. A maximum of 1000 cases (making 12.000 bottles) will be available.

.ancnoc - peter arkle - bricks

As happens so very often, my wife had the luminous idea to join in a twitter tasting organised by @alembic_tweets, for anCnoc whisky's new Peter Arkle - Bricks expression.

Since we are trying to join more and more of these tastings lately, it should not have proven problem joining this tasting together with some other lucky few that were selected to join in. In this case we could do our tastings at any given time on Saturday the 25th or Sunday the 26th of May 2013, exactly when we had planned to be on Islay, during Feis Ile 2013.

Luck was on our side though: Lukasz from Alembic was a great sport posting the package on time, so we received our little bottle perfectly on time for us to pack with the luggage and bring it back to Scotland to taste it while on Islay.