Ouche Nanon Lost Barrel XXI
French Single Malt Whisky | 46% ABV
Allons enfants de la Patrie
Here it is, your man Ainsley is dropping his second review and it’s already an unknown French whisky that about 0,0037% of Dramface readers will be able to get their hands on, and even fewer will have heard of. Don’t thank me.
More seriously, I feel it is my duty to represent my local whisky scene, just as Broddy and Aengus are rooting for their Canadian malts and ryes, Ogilvie is hunting for Virginia distilling expressions or Tyree is exploring the very unique Australian scene.
I have to be honest with you though; I’m part of a few French-speaking Facebook/Discord groups about whisky, and there’s a common inside joke circling around, that all French whisky is crap. As I have been in spirits retail for three years now, I have had the opportunity to try a lot of different French whiskies. Judging by these tastings, of course the previous statement isn’t true, but I must say in practice it was, up until recently, quite hard to find decent whisky hailing from my motherland. I’m not going to dwell on this too much in this piece, because I of course intend to do a deep dive on French whisky in an upcoming feature.
To keep it short let’s just say I am personally more likely to buy scotch than French whisky. That reflects in my whisky collection, which is currently composed of 27 scotches for just 4 French whiskies, including two that were gifted to me.
So what’s made me pull the trigger on this one ? First of all the price was fair, even if I will have to caveat that later. Secondly, Ouche Nanon is a distillery that has been on my radar for a while now because of the promise they showed in their young whiskies that I’ve tried. Lastly, honestly, I needed a French whisky to review for Dramface, one that wasn’t gifted to me (by industry people), and the only one fitting this bill in my arsenal currently is one I absolutely despise the taste of. That was not gonna do it. So when attending a Shochu tasting last week at la Maison du Whisky I spotted this wee dumpy bottle, I decided to give it a try.
Let’s talk a little about the distillery itself before diving into the whisky.
Ouche Nanon was founded as a brewery in 2010 by Thomas Mousseau, a former government worker for the agriculture and sustainability ministry. Thomas only started distilling in 2015, after spending time in Scotland learning the trade, notably at Glencadam and Royal Lochnagar distilleries. The first whisky was bottled in 2018, the same year a new Charentais gas-fired still - the type used in Cognac - was acquired to triple production of single malt.
The distillery is located in the small village of Ourouer-les-Bourdelins, about 25 km south-east of Bourges and 25 km south-west of Nevers, in the Berry Country. It is right in the middle of what is called la diagonale du vide; the empty diagonal, referring to the region being very rural, with very few big cities. It is an area dominated by agriculture, like crop farming; notably wheat, barley and maize. It is also fairly close to the wine producing region of Centre-Loire, where you can find appellations such as Menetou-Salon, Pouilly-Fumé, and, most famously, Sancerre.
The majority of the distillery’s output is aged in Bourbon casks, and released at a young age of 3 to 5 years old. Some other casks are used, mainly STR Pinot Noir and freshly disgorged wine casks, as their website states. The whisky reviewed today is part of a series called Lost Barrel, focusing on single casks and less-used cask types. All of Ouche Nanon’s production is certified organic under EU legislation, which is always nice.
The unpeated barley comes from the Centre Loire region where the distillery is located and is malted at the Franco-Suisse d’Issoudin malting plant, while the occasional peated run is done with malt coming from the malterie du château.
Oh by the way, if you wondered, Ouche Nanon means Nanon’s Orchard in the old french dialect that was used in the region, and it simply is the name of the plot of land the distillery is located on. No one seems to know who this Nanon was.
Almost all of France’s whisky output comes from very small distilleries, and Ouche Nanon is no exception. I was not able to get actual figures, but looking at pictures of the distillery, it wouldn’t surprise me if it produced less than 10,000 litres of alcohol per year. This is true scarcity. For comparison, Lochlea, an example of a quite small Scottish distillery, is producing around 200,000 Lpa according to the 2023 Malt whisky yearbook.
I said further up in this piece that I was gonna have to talk about the price. I paid 58€ (roughly £50) for this wee whisky, which is all fine and dandy, but the eagle eyed among you may have already spotted this is a 50cl. Yes there is less whisky, so this bottle is mathematically less of a value buy, regardless of how it tastes.
My possibly controversial take on this is; I don’t care. I now have more than 30 bottles open in my cabinet, and I don’t drink whisky everyday, so even 50cl bottles last a long time. Here’s how I look at it; is it a fair price considering how the whisky was made and where it comes from? Am I happy I spent X amount of my hard earned € on this bottle when I raise the glass to my lips? If the answer is yes to at least the first question, I don’t really mind if it’s 50cl.
Judging by the microscopic scale of this distillery, I’d say the answer to question number 1 is definitely yes. For question number two, well, we’ll see.
Also, if it’s 58€ for 50cl, it means it would have been in the ballpark of 80€ (£70) for a 70cl, and, even being a whisky enthusiast and regularly buying similarly priced bottles, I sure as hell would not have bought it at this price. Sticking to the smaller format might help the distillery reach more drinkers, which is the way to go I think for French whisky. The category needs casual drinkers who are regularly gonna buy bottles of their favourite distilleries, not just enthusiasts who want to try all the whiskies in the world but might buy their second bottle of a specific distillery years after the first one. And the regular whisky consumer doesn’t want to spend a lot on his everyday bottles.
I know that a lot of people among you readers might disagree with me, and I get why, but once again, this is only my point of view. Working in retail, I notice how people who spend around 80€ on whisky tend to know what they want and usually gravitate around Scotch (or they don’t know any better and want a Japanese whisky because they saw somewhere it was voted ‘Best in the World’), and we struggle to sell French whisky for more than 60-65€.
You have permission to tell me I’m an idiot and I don’t understand anything in the comments below, that’s what the internet is made for after all.
Review
Ouche Nanon Lost Barrel XXI, French Single Malt, single cask, Armagnac cask maturation, bourbon cask finish, 46% ABV
€58 (£50) in selected French retailers
The bottle comes with a little card tied around the neck, explaining a few things about this batch. Here it is translated to the best of my ability:
“LOST BARREL No XXI
Single malt - Single cask
Our cask n°21 has previously been used for about 50 years in the Armagnac region. We acquired it in 2018 and filled it with one of our malt spirits, and then left it for a period of 4 years.
The last 4 months of ageing have been spent in two select Bourbon casks.
Displaying finesse and marked by its history, this Lost Barrel n°21 presents aromas of vanilla, apricots and raisins, with subtle notes of walnuts and coffee.”
Reading that, one might expect that said Armagnac cask was a bit tired after maturing brandies for 50 years, and the liquid needed a little boost from the American oak. According to the date of distillation, this whisky may well originate from the bigger 15 hL Charentais still nicknamed Bertha The Great rather than the earlier, smaller wood fired still that was used for the first 3 years of production.
Now, just a thought as we were discussing similar matters with the team today, but how can a whisky matured in an Armagnac cask and then finished in 2 separate bourbon casks (Armagnac casks can reach 350L) be a single cask ? Food for thought.
No mention is made of colouring and chill filtration, but, judging by the fact that the distillery is very small scale, that their core range is said to be natural on their website, and this whisky’s relatively pale colour, I’d say we are in integrity malt territory. It would be nice if the little card spoke less of finesse and history and instead made room for these considerations. In my humble opinion of course; I’ve got no experience in designing packages, after all.
Nose
Ouch that’s difficult. Grainy, vegetal, cooked veggies like cabbage and parsnip, cold mashed potatoes from yesterday evening. Vegetable broth. Absolutely no fruit! Where are the promised apricots and raisins? The addition of water (about a third of a teaspoon) brings it to life, thankfully. Sweeter, butter biscuits like the petit beurre we have here. Still no apricots and raisins, but I can understand the walnuts reference.
Palate
Quite thick, not oily but it has texture, which is a good thing. Roasted barley, mashy, veggies. Finishes inelegantly on a vegetal bitterness. Water to the rescue! It is indeed a bit sweeter, making it palatable, but the finish remains quite bitter, on old wet wood. Really not impressing, but drinkable with the addition of water.
The Dregs
It would seem that the armagnac cask was indeed tired, unfortunately. That would explain the finish in bourbon wood, which I suspect saves it with its sweet notes. To be clear, this is not a bad whisky, but it is very challenging and requires the use of water. I would not have two consecutive drams of this. To be really fair, I’ll see how the bottle evolves over the coming weeks and if it changes dramatically, I’ll post a comment here.
Yeah, you may be able to tell, I really wanted to like this whisky more. It’s my second review on Dramface, and it’s the first one of a French whisky. I hate that it is a disappointing one. I want my country’s whiskies to evoque excitement, not apprehension.
Coming back to my earlier point, I believe these types of releases hurt the category. The casual drinker might buy a bottle of this and be turned off French whiskies for good, missing great bottlings and experiences. These types of releases need to stop. If it’s not ready, it’s not ready. I understand that up and coming distilleries need to release young whisky, but I would much rather have them focus on a great core range of three, two or even one whisky (hello Torabhaig) than having a plethora of single casks and limited releases and whatnot of whiskies that simply aren’t good enough, yet.
But I have faith for the future. The next French bottles I will review might be ones I already know to be good - and there are a lot of them. For the moment, I will score this appropriately, and wait for a French moment of glory that will no doubt come later. Le jour de gloire n’est (pas encore) arrivé. 4/10 on Dramface corresponds to:
“4/10: Some promise. These whiskies have some redeeming qualities but annoyingly haven’t come together as we’d hoped, just slipping down the pecking order. Work required.”
I think it is the perfect way to summarise what’s in my copita right now. Score unchanged by price.
Oh by the way, I must say on this occasion I really don’t mind that this is only a 50cl bottle.
Today’s musical pairing is brought to us by a french band, which thankfully is never disappointing. It is of course Gojira, with their song Low Lands from their album Magma.
Score: 4/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. AF