hello multi mature malt masters and thank you to steve hb for that
mention and welcome to ralphie review
879 now i have mentioned 879 in ralphie review 878 but this is definitely it for real to avoid
any confusion on with the show i have a bottle of single malt it's a bottle i come back to over
the years i buy a bottle really enjoy it and then a few years later i buy another bottle
it's called enoch and it's 18 years old and you may be interested to know that it's bottled
at 46 volume until filtered and natural color which makes it an integrity bottling of an
older matured whiskey at well if you're in the uk anyway at an accessible price
it states it on the label where it should be so it's all looking good uh and it's the
sort of bottle of whiskey that it wouldn't do you any harm to buy a bottle or two and
put it away for a few years because it's not going to change in the bottle it's going to stay exactly
the way it is so long as you store the bottle upright and away from direct sunlight and in a
cool place i know of some malt mates who actually have a fridge i kid you not it's like a kind of
chest freezer fridge and end and it's acting basically like a temperature control cabinet
and because they happen to live near the tropics that's how they store their spirits and
not only that but when they take the spirits out they bring out a glass from their storage cabinet
so that the glass itself is cool cooler than the the ambient temperature and if it works fantastic
to be honest i'd probably do the same fortunately i live in what's classified as a cold northern
climate further north actually than moscow so we're well up in the northern hemisphere where
i am in the irish sea however we do get the benefit of the gulf stream which brings some
warm water all the way from the caribbean and i tell you what malt makes it's much appreciated
and i tell you what i much appreciate buying myself another bottle of this i've already
poured a glass it's sitting settling nicely oxidizing slightly opening up doing its magic
and reminding me every time i taste it that i left it too long since i bought bought my last bottle
unpainted fresh fruit refreshingly astringent
a few years ago not a popular style of single malt it was really it's really more of a
apple intense version of glenfiddich you could look at it in that respect it's not to be
confused by the way with knocking though this single malt but anok comes from the knock doo
distillery so there is no anok distillery so that's another little peculiar eccentricity
to be aware of but i have to say it's so refreshing to come back after what
the last time i reviewed this was in 2015 so it's about six years ago six years
and they've not changed the packaging they've not changed the presentation they've not got the
marketing team in to rejig it and put a brighter label on and different shape of bottle and i have
to say a knock a wee message from all the malt mates that form my audience thank you very much
for not messing about with the presentation because frankly i'm getting more and more
pissed off with it when other brands are doing it because increasingly i see it as a subtle cover-up
for changing the profile of their whiskey to make it sweeter and perhaps a little less substantial
that's what i perceive happening uh but this was back in 521 uh i reviewed this
so what's it like is it changed much right well i could smell it and taste it and tell you
oh it's this that and all the rest of it but it's not changed at all it's as fresh as delicious
as substantial as worthwhile as it's always been the quality has not dropped one
single point it's fantastic stuff but my palettes change slightly so it's not going
to be this probably probably not going to be the same mark malt mark as last time nose
rich slightly astringent
citrusy green citrus malted barley cereal citrus on the nose fresh and zesty
first taste intense slightly lemony cereal sour note complex herbaceous
a little bit of mintiness and wintermint it's wintermint no it's not wintermint wintergreen
thank you a little bit of wintergreen so you've got these little green flavor notes particularly
in the development but when you taste it nate it's a little bit short so gonna add a drop of water
about four milliliters so not quite a full teaspoon
to a standard measure well a ralphie measure you know what a ralphie measure is now i don't
have to state it's about well i will state it because it's about 20 to 25 milliliters
it's slightly short of a standard bar
measure it's wonderful how this whiskey opens up over the next 15 20 minutes even half an
hour it's a master class and in fresh cereal expressiveness as a whiskey which has been
understated in its maturation so they're not imposing finishes on it there's none of that
they're not trying to put a big sherry blank over the top of it they're not trying to zap
you with that vanilla sweetness from an excessive amount of fresh ex-bourbon casks
you don't have all the wine cask permutations the 101 varieties i tell you what my hat's off to the
blender to the master blender uh with the owners of this distillery whose consistency should be
commented on because it's very admirable and thoroughly professional and quite old school
it is it's a very refreshing whiskey not just in terms of smell and flavor but in terms of being
con having continuity with its its flavor and its smell i mean it's really about because i
buy so many different varieties of whiskey because i've got my channel
i do come across great whiskies and i said do you know in the future i'm going to come back to
this i'm going to buy another bottle and that's what i've done here and i should be reviewing
[ __ ] ox to be honest i've viewed this is the fifth review i think it's five or s possibly six
two twelves sixteen and eighteen and this the second eighteen so that's a total of five reviews
and i really should be coming back to this brand more often while it re well it holds its magic
because all around the small mates things are changing fast as more and more companies are
getting scooped up by bigger companies and then the rebranding takes place
at a time when customers are far more informed and have far better pallets
than ever before so it's a really interesting time for all this and the the young distilleries
the small distilleries they really haven't kicked in on mass yet to keep providing us that array of
options of integrity options which we buy into because it works it it's we know from experience
not from what we're told but for from what we find for ourselves trusting our own judgment and
it's bottles like this that you want to buy one or two and put them aside because goodness knows
it's not as if we're at the end of change now and suddenly everything's going to go
stable again i think the dramatic change i didn't realize i didn't anticipate that it would be as
dramatic as it is and it's as extensive as it is but it's far from finished yet
but back to a knock i was a wee distraction there we detour but it was useful because
it can help this to settle down and open up with the water in it bring my nose back to
softer much more floral on the nose honeysuckle some fresh lilies slight summer fruit milk white
fruits grapefruit and melon it's a little citrus note still in there some nice soft
understated vanilla and of course the backbone of this malt is that barley sugar dry cereal
personality
rich soft fresh fruit lemon soft banana going into the development touch of grapefruit and ginger
slight pickled ginger sushi ginger the development is so much longer now with the water in it
the finish soft subtle languid slight white tea not even green tea it's white oriental tea
and a touch of just a frostiness of tannins can i say that well i've said it anyway so there you go
just that little delicate touch of tannins into the finish along with some soft ginger and jasmine
it's it's a fantastic whiskey what i recommend is be patient with it because it
needs time to get to that special place where it presents itself at its best
and you do need to add water i know there's industry professionals that never had water
blah blah blah that suits them that suits them at least they get consistency in their experience
but um no water makes all the difference a little bit of slight scotch mist appearing
into the glass now not a lot though but there you go a bottle that tells you it's
natural color and looks natural color more mark it's got to be a good one got to be a good one
yeah 90. 90 out of 100s now i can hear my critics already hey ralphie i knock is not that five star
single malt distillery it's a three star malt distillery you can't be giving it such high marks
well yes i can because it's the this is an integrity bottling malt makes these are
getting scarcer and scarcer these days we've got to acknowledge the the value of integrity
of 46 until filtered natural color it matters more than now than ever before it becomes an
intrinsic component of the quality of our experience and of course it's reflected in
the marks i'm giving the marks i'm giving this 90 over 100 because it's just an honest old-school
well blended understated not messed about with single malt whiskey and that's a damn good reason
damn good reason to give it a good mark i'm rafi join me soon for rafi review
879 extras in which i'll be presenting my overview of an on-age statement
whiskey which is particularly good but i'm not reviewing it because don't review them
there's only one way to find out what it is makes you're gonna have to watch bye