Penny for Your Thoughts - Balblair 2000, AncNoc 12
Some quick hits today, from two Highland single malt samples.
Balblair 2000 (43% ABV) - Balblair is a Highland distillery that distinguishes itself from other scotches by vintage dating, rather than providing age statements, for their scotches. In other words, no, this is not a 2,000-year old single malt (I'll go out on a limb and say that would probably be a tad over-oaked). This scotch was barreled in 2000, and released in the early 2010s, so it is about 10 years old. I'm not sure whether it remains widely available (MSRP was about $50-60 a bottle), but I grabbed a sample online to get a sense of the distillery's character. I found Balblair to be a cut above the usual 10-12 year Highland malts, which can sometimes blur together in my mind. It has a country breakfast basket of scents: apple, malt, jasmine, honey, and vanilla. The taste is sweet pomegranate and apple, and some wheat beer, cereal grain combination. The finish is sweet but has some traces of smoke or rubber, almost as if there's a tiny bit of peat drying to the malt. It's not hugely complex, but it's a better than competent example of the sweet, session-scotch paradigm. I'd place it solidly ahead of Glenmorangie Original or others in the same weight class, although it's also a fair amount pricier. B
AncNoc 12 (43%) - AncNoc is a relatively new name in the scotch world, although not a new distillery. It's a rebranding of Knockdhu's single malts, meant to avoid brand confusion with the nearby Knockando. Which makes one wonder -- for the few human beings who care enough about scotch to know what either Knockdhu or Knockando is, would there really be any confusion between the two? Although technically a Speysider, AncNoc is an airy scotch more in the Highland school. Put another way, it occupies the easy drinking extreme of the easy drinking end of the pool. On the nose, it's malt and nothing but the malt. Well, that may not be entirely true. There may be something floral there, but it's like faded potpourri, so faint I could be imagining it. The taste is very buttery and smooth, and has shades of honey or some melon. The finish is a bit dry, a little gin-like, floral, and tinged with some berries. It's pleasant but almost too subtle. At $40 or so for a bottle, it's a solid pick for someone who doesn't want to stray too far from the basic single malts like Glenmorangie or Glenlivet in either price or flavor profile, but wants a lesser-known name. I like it but am glad I just bought a sample. B-