Northmaen Cuvée 1110, batch 1/2021, NAS, 48% ABV, natural colour, UCF
If there is one country in Europe where they know a thing or two about enjoying the good things in life, it’s probably France. World renowned for its delicious cuisine, celebrated the world over for its many wonderful wines, and setting the bar when it comes to fine brandy with Cognac, Armagnac and Calvados… no wonder there is a saying in Dutch that describes someone living the life as ‘living like a god in France’. While the French pretty much got things covered when it comes to hedonism and, as the cliché goes, won’t let an opportunity pass by to point it out as well, it’s really quite astonishing to learn that their number one spirit drink is in fact whisky. In fact, they consume more scotch whisky than cognac, calvados and Armagnac combined. For a nation known for its attitude of cultural superiority (apologies to all my French friends for dragging out yet another cliché the size of a house), that’s quite something.
And yet, also not very surprising at all. The French and the Scots go way back, as far back as Mary Queen of Scots (who was raised at the French court) and beyond, to the days Robert The Bruce even. Much about that centuries-old-bond has to do with their mutual aversion for those pesky buggers living halfway between the two nations – the English. Little wonder then that the Bonnie Prince Charles, who laid claim to the Scottish throne, was backed by the French (and sought refuge there as well after the Scottish disaster at Culloden in 1746). But ‘The Auld Alliance’ (as the ties between Scotland and France are known) isn’t all down to the practical stance of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’, because throughout history there has been a lot of cultural exchange and bilateral influences between the two.
But you’re not here for some lame history lesson, you’re here for whisky. And rightfully so! It’s easy to digress when putting whisky and France in the same sentence, so apologies. As we established the fact that the French are quite fond of Scotch whisky, it shouldn’t come a s a surprise that the 2nd biggest whisky conglomerate calling the shots in Scotland, is in fact French, with Pernod Ricard owning about a dozen single malt distilleries. And yet, while whisky is on the rise pretty much all across the globe, it seems as if it is taking the French quite a bit of time to throw themselves at the noble craft of making uisge beatha themselves. Browsing to the one true bible (the malt whisky yearbook) and you’ll find there are well over 40 distilleries in France now producing whisky. However, how many of those could you actually name, and how many did you even get to try? The ones I know and have tried can be counted on the fingers of one hand: Armorik from Warenghem distilleries, Distillerie des Menhirs and Glann Ar Mor are really worth checking out (all from Normandy or Bretagne in the North West of France and near the channel, not a coincidence I believe), while I once crossed paths with a blend from Hepp distillery from the Alsace region as well – which turned out to be an encounter I rather regret having in fact.
Recently, I got the chance to try a fifth French single malt, and it will be the topic of today’s review. It comes from the Northmaen distillery in Normandy, and it was created by none other than our own fellow whisky enthusiast Grégoire Sarafian, who you may know from his own channel and knows far more about (French) whisky than I do, so please go check out his content if you haven’t already.
Northmaen may not be what you’d call a household name to most of us, but they’ve got a pretty interesting story to tell. They initially started out as a family owned brewery called La Chapelle (probably no translation needed on this one) in 1997, but branched out shortly after, when in 1999 they started producing whisky too. So while still a lot of their production is on ‘craft distillery’ level, they have been going strong for well over 2 decades now. The cool factor only grows stronger as they use an ex-Armagnac still, meaning all spirit comes from a single distillation run. It’s an old ‘wandering’ still as they were called, meaning that Armagnac producers used to go from vineyard to vineyard to distil on site and then move on, as a lot of wine producers didn’t have their own distillation equipment.
I think it’s simply wonderful when someone from within the community gets granted access to a warehouse to create a single malt. Whisky tends to be expensive, valuable stuff, so when you trust someone enough to step in as an outsider who then goes through your warehouse to rummage through casks, sampling and blending this and that to create a new whisky: that’s quite something, so all the more credit to Greg on this one.
Although this whisky is a NAS, I can tell you that all whisky used here comes from 5 casks, all somewhere between 3 and 9 years old, 4 of them previously containing Bordeaux wine and 1 containing Sauternes. Another cool fact here: the whisky maturing in an ex sauternes cask wasn’t laid to rest in oak but comes from an acacia cask. Using acacia wood is not uncommon in the wine industry and it tends to give a rather aromatic result, which, so I’m told, is far less tannic than oak casks and brings out notes of spices and almonds, which may be the result of the wood being slightly less dense compared to oak wood and therefore ‘breaths’ a bit more.
So, after that rather lengthy introduction, on with the whisky…
Nose
Floral, heathery sweetness with a minty-herbaceous freshness which turns into a candy-syrupy sweetness (pink candy & bubble gum). Dessert wine with tropical fruit and autumns forest (nutty and a faint funk). Inviting and also quite intriguing as it has something I can’t always put my finger on.
Palate
Quite surprising as it differs from the nose. Viscous, yet dry mouthfeel and a fairly light body, with a slight effervescence to it. The grassy-floral notes are taking the lead now. Sweetness from honey and mead with some tropical elements to it (Turkish delight). Then it makes a U-turn again and develops towards what I can only describe as rye territory. That bubblegum sweetness combined with ‘green’ notes. Combined with those fresh floral- herbal notes makes for a very tasty and interesting combination. These get accentuated after a drop of water, although adding water was more down to curiosity as is perfectly palatable as it is.
Finish
Medium long and light. Fresh and very floral at first, then it becomes slightly dryer with a soft woody bitter note.
Final thoughts
I was very impressed with the profile of this, all in all, young single malt. It’s not super complex, but it has a really interesting development and shows a wonderful array of flavours. And before you say I‘m biased because it was made by someone I know personally: yes, I am. But if I didn’t like what I tasted, I wouldn’t have reviewed it in the first place. Bringing the acacia cask into this batch really adds to this whisky. The Bordeaux cask influence never ever takes over, but sort of lays a foundation for the malt whisky to build and thrive on and then the acacia wood with all that sauternes sweetness picks it up from there and takes it to another place altogether. This is just the thing if you like to ‘spice things up’ a bit without leaving familiar malt whisky territory. Clearly not a scotch whisky, but it never intended to be a copycat in the first place, and therefore absolutely worth trying. This is of course set out as limited release, but if you ‘re ever in a position to try this: it should retail for about €60-€70 (around £55). The French are not claiming the Scottish throne, they’re simply building a new one to put next to it.
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