2016 Release | 46% ABV

These Are Not the 12 Year Olds You’re Looking For

I’m a bit of a Star Wars geek. When setting out to create a title for this review after writing my tasting notes down, Obi-Wan’s famous line A New Hope presented itself.

I didn’t really have a preamble in mind for this article either. No fancy story nor adventure here — I just bought this bottle to drink. After reading Tyree’s tonal Talisker tirade on the interplay between music and whisky, several ideas for reviews popped into my mind, but as they did not draw any connections between the whisky I was sipping and my personal relationship or experience to it, those ideas were lost to the sands of Tatooine. Until now.

I wasn’t born, nor was I a purposeful glimmer in my parents eyes, when the original Star Wars series was released. My relationship to this expansive universe, which has more parallels to the whisky industry than you might think, began with a VHS viewing of the first film in the debut — though narratively middle — triplet of films. I was a country bumpkin who grew up with “peasant vision”: three news channels that sometimes featured the odd movie or weekend morning cartoon. So with my brain completely blown by this alternate universe in a galaxy far, far away, I dove deep into the books.

It was a win-win for my parents: rather than letting me melt my brain on terrible television or wreck the house with excessive kid energy in the dead of winter in Canada, my parents were all too willing to shell out money for books. I devoured the hundreds of books which cross this imaginary universe, escaping from boring rural living when things like cell phones, video games, and YouTube were but scribbles on the backs of napkins.

It’s a humble and quaintly fond memory of my journey through one of the universe’s true constants: Time. I guess that’s one of the primary reasons I connected with Star Wars over Star Trek. Rather than a utopian interpretation of Earth’s or humanity's future, Star Wars provided an alternate lens free from the unruly, physics-defying time travel notions of Q et al. Now these might be fighting words to some, but pour yourself a dram and calm down — we’re all friends here.

The Scotch Whisky Association? The Empire. Non-Scottish malt whisky producers wishing to push the boundaries or leverage some familial Scottish ancestry for their distillery? The Rebellion. Correlians (Han Solo’s people)? Yup, those have gotta be Americans and their bourbon. (The Ewoks? Nope, got nothing. Sorry, George Lucas, those not-really-cute teddy bears should have been stricken from the films. They play absolutely zero role in the larger Star Wars universe, primarily as most authors have neglected them for good reason: they’re terrible.)

The Yuuzhan Vong? The what now? Is that a disease? Nope, not a disease, but what in my opinion should have been the adversarial focus of the most recent triplet of films rather than continued dogma and narrowed imagination. To my mind, these mysterious Yuuzhan Vong represent the inexorable march of time — an unknown force of future whisky consumption and demand. Will the hundreds of new global whisky distilleries face a drastic increase in disinterest towards aged spirits, resulting in a crushing force (the Vong) that smashes the industry (the New Republic) as we currently know it?

Only time, an unbroken constant and a variable deftly sidestepped by the Star Wars universe, will tell.

Review

AnCnoc 14yo, distilled 2001, 2016 official release, 46% ABV
Paid £66 (CAD$110)

Unknowingly, I bought this bottle with a dry cork. After making the trek home, I noticed a few dribbles had spilled out while it was slightly tipped over. So perhaps my notes would have been slightly different if I’d had a fresh cork. Or not. Serves me right for buying a whisky in 2022 after it was released in 2016… In my defence, it had only become available on the shelves in about August last year (#canadafail). And I do keep a box of old corks for this very purpose — happily, a Tobermory stopper fits this bottle perfectly. 

I purchased this bottle because I had very much enjoyed the standard 12yo release. After spying several different vintages on the shelves and wanting to take a punt on a higher ABV release free of chill-filtering or added colouring, I took this 14yo 2001 vintage release home with me. It consists of a vatting of Spanish and American oak barrels.

Nose

Honey, oranges, and a healthy spoonful of cinnamon and brown sugar. Touch of malt grist. Almond vanilla pound cake dotted with white raisins.

Palate

Just like in the old comics when the superhero hits the bad guy: BAM! A spicy slap to your tongue and cheeks from barrel tannins leads the charge. Once you acclimatise to that, cinnamon, ginger, and honey appear. An orange citrus zestiness is ever-present. Once in a while, a measure of orange-flavoured chocolate laced with white pepper crosses my mind. It is really dominated by the citrus and zest from the Spanish oak. The tannins provide a medium length and drying finish.

The Dregs

How likely are you to find this 2016 on your local shelves? Not very, I would wager.

So why did I think of writing this review if it didn’t have much of an impact on informing your purchasing? Well, in a world seemingly dominated by sherry-seasoned American oak, with the corresponding vanilla-led, minimal-tannin experience, this AnCnoc is the antithesis. I would wager that the Spanish/European oak barrels comprise a decent portion of this release, with the American oak barrels brought in to bring up the overall sweetness and add a touch of vanilla to the experience. The true advantage of having a whisky like this on the shelf is the A-to-B tasting ability it provides. Having trouble connecting with a certain whisky? Pour a splash of this on the side and perhaps the other whisky will open up and reveal its secrets to you upon your next sip. I know I use this AnCnoc for this very purpose, and it works well. It’s also a blast back to the past, when less vanilla, more tannin-led sherry matured whiskies were commonplace. 

Coming back to the Star Wars analogy, I think this 2001 edition small batch release could be aptly described as 2018’s Solo film. While we had grown accustomed to the gruff, rough, and scoundrel-esque Han Solo portrayed by Harrison Ford (i.e. the much-loved AnCnoc 12 yo standard release), the origin of the Han Solo character (portrayed by Alden Ehrenrich) came as a surprise to many movie-goers who haven’t gone down the Sarlacc pit of the hundreds of books in this universe. Gone was the familiarly cynical, slightly down-trodden ruffian, and in his place was a vibrant, energetic, hopeful, and entirely different Han Solo character (the 2001 release). Just like these two versions of the same character, this 2001 AnCnoc is likely to buck the trend of what many would expect an older, non-chill-filtered, amped-up-proof version of the much-loved 12yo to be like.

Overall, this whisky is good. It is missing a few things in the flavour department that would elevate it a point, however I will say that it is an excellent bottle to have on the shelf, if only to remind yourself what some of the older bottlings of European oak barrels might be like. The tannins and zestiness last for quite some time, with a “fizziness” on the sides of your tongue and gums that I find very similar to a quality champagne or brut and its effervescent microbubbles. Again, it is quite dissimilar to the ubiquitous and well-regarded 12yo, which surprised me upon cracking it open. I was hoping for an amped-up 12yo, enhanced with a touch of sherry, but what I found was quite different and quite educational. It’s not overly complex, but not every whisky needs to be the most complex or fantastical experience. We do need some lesser experiences from whisky to better appreciate those less common amazing ones.

For the time being, there are several vintages of these “small batch” AnCnocs available near me at a similar price to this one. I might have to reign in the FOMO until this bottle is finished, but those other expressions currently represent a decent value proposition given their age and presentation (especially in the context of forthcoming global pricing woes).

Hold fast, Broddy.

Score: 6/10

Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. BB

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