Ah the ever confusing anCnoc! It’s weird to write, strange to pronounce, and not the name of the distillery. With all these marketting head scratchers, it seems to be doing well and for good reason. They make good whisky. Knockdhu is the name of the distillery but they changed the name of their whisky to anCnoc to avoid confusion with Knockando distillery. By the way it’s pronounced “a-nock” and apparently it is Gaelic for “the hill”. AnCnoc/Knockdhu is owned by Inver House Distillers who also own Old Pulteney and Balblair. Since Balblair almost exclusively release their whiskies with vintage statements, this relationship may explain anCnoc’s series of vintage whiskies.
The use of vintage statements has some interesting implications on the production process. First of all, it means that the blender can only use casks from that year. Usually with an age statement whisky, a blender will use casks that are as old or older than the age statement. Because they can only use casks from the stated vintage, the whisky is naturally limited. In this case only 1000 cases of th anCnoc 2001 were produced. If they ever release another batch of 2001 vintage whisky, it would be older and thus the flavour profile would likely be quite different. So it’s a very interesting way to make and sell whisky.
Just a note that this whisky is not chill filtered. We tried this at a University of Edinburgh Water of Life Society Tasting.
Distillery: Knockdhu
Age: Not stated but presumable around 15 years old (2001 vintage bottled in 2016)
Cask: Spanish and American Oak (ex-sherry and ex-bourbon)
ABV: 46%
Price: £54.95 from the Master of Malt
TheMadVatter
Nose
Fruit cake soaked with rum. Sultanas rehydrated in liquor. Fermented fruits. A tropical fruit shake.
Taste
Spicy fruit cake with sticky toffee pudding sauce. Crème brulee. Peppery. A bit of citrus like orange marmalade. Loads of flavour here that hit you right off the bat. Not shy this one.
Finish
Tangy citrus orange and lemon marmalade. Tingly bubbly white wine. A little bit of chili dogs.
Rating
7.5
Afterthoughts
A flavourful dram that does not hold back. Lots of nice tangy and spicy fruits. Not super balanced but fun. Sometimes you have to get a little unbalanced for some extra fun. A bit of a strange mix of flavours but it works for me. I would probably want to drink this at a social event where the conversation is a bit dry. This should spice things up. At least for you.
Image at top from:
https://cdn3.masterofmalt.com/whiskies/p-2813/knockdhu/ancnoc-2001-whisky.jpg?ss=2.0
Adventures in Whisky Land 
