Exclusive Interview: Annabel Thomas on Nc'Nean’s Sustainable Whisky Revolution

Nc'Nean and the Whisky of the Future: An Interview with Its Founder

During an open Nc'Nean tasting at 39 Spirits & Cigars in Eichstätt, Bavaria, I had the opportunity to have a short interview with Annabel Thomas, founder of the Nc'Nean distillery.

The Origins and Philosophy of Nc'Nean

Spiritory:

Hey Annabel, thanks for taking the time to talk with us. Can you tell us a little bit about yourelf and Nc'nean?

Annabel Thomas:

Yes i can!, my name is Annabel, i founded Nc'Nean 12 years ago. I wanted to create a whisky distillery that was both innovative and focused on sustainability. There's a lot of amazing tradition in Scotch, but there wasn't really anyone thinking either about how to push the flavour of Scotch forward, or thinking about how to make it more sustainable.

Spiritory:

What was the biggest hurdle you had to overcome in creating organic spirits?

Annabel Thomas:

There are many hurdles on our sustainability journey! From an organic point of view, actually there is a lot of organic barley grown in Scotland so that was pleasingly easy. The main problem honestly is the cost, it is very expensive to buy organic barley. It's about of the total price you pay on the shelf it's maybe 3-4 pounds extra just to buy organic barley.

But it is also more of an administrative headache because you have to be certified, you have to comply with a lot of regulations and you have to do a lot of paperwork. But really the main hurdle is the cost.

Challenges and Experimentation in Whisky Production

Spiritory:

There is no no peated Nc'Nean at the moment. I guess that is because peat it not really sustainable. There are some distilleries experimenting with alternatives, for example the Ondjaba Whisky from Namibia, which uses elephant dung as a sustainable peat alternative. As far as i know there are no elephants in Scotland, but have you ever thought about an alternative to peat?

Anabel Thomas:

Laughs- Yes!, a lot! But we haven't done it yet. There are two hurdles. The first is, that i don't think that the SWA would actually allow it, but that aside i would still be happy to try it, even if we can't can make it into whisky.

That would be really interesting to me. But we haven't done it yet. Thats something for the future!

But, you will never find a peated Nc'Nean, that is for sure.

Spiritory:

There is also a Botanical Spirits by Nc'Nean, which is a gin but not really a gin? Can you tell us a little about that?

Annabel Thomas:

Yes thats correct! It was actually our first ever product, the Botanical Spirit. It is made, starting with our new make - our unaged whisky and the we re-distill it in a gin still with some of the Gin botanicals that we use like juiper and coriander wich are classical gin botanicals.

We also add some local plants, something called bog myrtle or myrica gale, which is a very, very nice little bush that grows just around the distillery.

The Future of Nc'Nean and Upcoming Releases

Spiritory:

What do you think the future holds for Nc'Nean and what plans do you have?

Annabel Thomas:

Definitely new bottlings probably no new spirits. We are focused on Whisky. We will have a lot of thinking to do about the botanical, if we will continue as it is or we will make it into a gin but as yet we havent decided. But really, our focus is on whisky anyway, the gin is fun, it makes a great Negroni but its not the focus.

Whisky is the focus and yes we will continue to do what we have always done which is hopefully create delicious whisky most importantly but also create very interesting whiskys like the Huntress series which is the one that comes out every spring and is all about the really weird and wonderful experiments that we do. Actually today huntress 2025 was being put into the big blending tank.

This will be one of our oldest releases, it is all from the 2017 stock and is was our very first yeast trial. I am quite exited for that to come out.

Spiritory:

Today we tried an exclusive single cask bottling for 39 Spirits & Cigars, called Aon. Are there any other Aon releases you can talk about?

Annabel Thomas:

Yes we actually do quite a lot. We do about 20 a year. So i think in Germany last year there were four including the one for 39 Spirits & Cigars. There were three others and i think we will do another four for Germany this year but we also do a lot in the UK and lots of other markets as well.

Spiritory:

I can't wait to try it! Thank you very much for the interview, it was a pleasure talking to you!

If there's anything else you'd like to say to the whisky community, the last word is yours.

Annabel Thomas:

Be adventurous!

Many thanks to 39 Spirits & Cigars for the great event and the permission for the interview. Many thanks to Annabel Thomas for her kindness and for taking the time for the interview.