The New Frontier Of Scotch Whisky With Annabel Thomas
The founder of Nc'Nean shares her thoughts about sustainability and innovation in the industry
Scotch is one of the most historically rich whisky categories in the world. But like all industries, it never stays static and traditions are constantly being reinvented for new generations.
Annabel Thomas, the founder of Nc’Nean whisky, is one of the pioneers taking the category into new and unexpected directions. It was a pleasure to talk to Annabel about how Nc’Nean is bringing sustainability and innovation to the space and what’s on the horizon.
What inspired you to start Nc’Nean whisky?
The original inspiration for the brand comes from my parent’s farm on the west coast of Scotland and I always say you can’t really be on the west coast of Scotland without speaking about whisky.
I used to be a strategy consultant in London and when I said to my family I had a chance to take some time off from that job, we decided to make the whisky-making dream we had for years a reality.
I wrote a business plan, visited distilleries and started to form the ideas of what what become Nc’Nean. I felt the whisky industry in Scotland in particular was very traditional and it was focused on doing things the way they'd always been done. None of which I see a problem with. But I think every industry also needs to be forward-looking at the same time.
No one was talking about sustainability or innovation and I could see the younger generation cared about those sorts of things. If someone in the Scotch industry doesn’t address those topics then the the next generation won’t engage with Scotch.
I set out on a mission to create a distillery that could be pioneering in terms of both sustainability and innovation. In particular, sustainability to show what’s possible and what everyone needs to adopt.