How’s that for an obscure bottle! Longmorn Brother GvB brought it by and was kind enough to give me a sample a little while ago. It’s been ages since I tried a Knockdhu, and I like the official line of AnCnoc. At least, I liked it a few years ago when I last tried them.

So, what is it? Knockdhu or AnCnoc? The correct answer is ‘both’!

Knockdhu as a brand name was objected to by Diageo, who own Knockando, as it would be too similar. So the distillery is still called Knockdhu, but the whisky they release is called AnCnoc.

Anyway, a 10 year old from an obscure series. Sounds interesting enough to me!

Sniff:
Closed off initially, with some oak and barley at first. Lots of dry notes with straw and grass. Dry barley, grist.

Sip:
The palate is quite similar to the nose but adds some black pepper and sawdust. It doesn’t seem to open up. Lots of grains and barley. Grist-y too.

Swallow:
Grainy, with wood and hay, some straw.

I’m not a fan. I see that this is getting quite good reviews and based on that I was quite thrilled to be able to try an independent Knockdhu, but there’s just nothing happening.

I might be wrong, of course, since everyone else seems to like it, but I find that it’s closed off, and it doesn’t open up.

What’s good is that it’s quite spirit driven, my guess would be that this is a refill bourbon cask. So in a way it’s very pure, but I would like to find some more flavors in a dram.

80/100