SMWS 115.22 AnCnoc 28 Year Old Whisky Review!

An SMWS bottling of a 28-year old single cask, cask strength AnCnoc single malt from Speyside's Knockdhu Distillery. 

The AnCnoc brand of single malt is produced by Knockdhu Distillery, with owners Inver House wanting to avoid any possible (and already unlikely) confusion with Diageo's Knockando Distillery that is relatively close-by. Speyside distillery Knockdhu was built in 1983 by Diageo-predecessor DCL in 1893 and is located around 25-miles south-east of Elgin near Keith. Like many DCL/SMD distilleries Knockdhu was closed during the low-point of 1983, and in 1988 was sold to Inver House Distillers, with production resuming in 1989. That company is now owned by a Thai corporation, and boasts a very respectable portfolio of Scotch whisky distilleries including Balblair, Pulteney, Speyburn and Balmenach distilleries, in addition to Knockdhu - pronounced "nock-doo", and meaning "Black Hill" in Gaelic, named after a local landmark. The distillery's single malt was first released under the name Knockdhu, but was renamed to AnCnoc (pronounced "an-ock" and meaning "The Hill") in 1994, and to add to the confusion it's labelled as a Highland single malt rather than a Speyside one. Which is fine, the Speyside whisky region is in the Highlands geographically, and it probably does help the brand stand out from its many neighbours. 

As far as production goes the distillerys most interesting point would be the worm tub condensers that are fitted to both pot stills, but with the two separate condenser pipes/worms actually sharing one cooling tub, which is very unusual and would likely give a slower condensation than individual tubs due to the added warmth - provided both stills were running simultaneously. The distillery also produces a heavily peated spirit, first distilled in 2003, which initially bucked the trend by measuring & declaring the phenolic content of the whisky itself rather than that of the malted barley like almost every other whisky brand. Unfortunately this has since been reversed since it caused confusion with consumers and probably ended up costing the brand sales in the race for ever-higher ppm figures, which is really more about marketing than anything else. I still think that change is a bit of a shame, but I can understand their reasoning since your average buyer is not going to read the fine print, and is unlikely to understand / care about the difference between the two measurements anyway. A similar thing happened with the vintage releases from Balblair and Glenrothes rather than age statements, with both brands eventually reverting to regular age statements to avoid confusion amongst the punters. 

The AnCnoc that we're looking at here is an independent bottling from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, a.k.a. SMWS or "the Society", and is part of their "Premium Bottling" range - essentially this means it's an older whisky with a black label rather than their usual white, and also comes packaged in a cardboard box. These are not as rare and/or as old as their "Vaults Collection" range of bottlings, which have a different label again and are packaged in a rather nice wooden box. The pricing for these is generally quite high, between $500 and $1,500, with most 25-year old or older bottlings now sitting around the $900 mark. I must admit though that while I've only tried a few examples to date, quality has been very high in those cases. This SMWS single cask AnCnoc, code 115.22 (meaning the 22nd cask the SMWS has bottled from distillery 115, which is Knockdhu) was released in Australia in October 2021, and the pricing was actually quite reasonable for a 28-year old single cask at $595. This bottling was distilled in June 1992 and bottled in mid-2021, and was fully matured in a refill ex-bourbon barrel prior to being bottled at a cask strength of 49.6%. The cask only yielded 148 bottles, and it is of course non-chill filtered and natural colour, as with all SMWS malt whiskies. Given the distillery's closure it's quite rare to find an old example of Knockdhu, and the oldest official bottling that has been seen to date, a 35-year old bottled at only 41% ABV, is priced at a whopping $1,600 AUD. So $600-ish is actually cheap in comparison, particularly for a sort-of-similar age and at cask strength, although that price would certainly jump up if it was being released today. The sample for this review came from a generous fellow whisky nerd. Let's see how it goes!

SMWS 115.22, 28-year old AnCnoc, 49.6% ABV. Speyside, Scotland.

"Shimmering Beauty of Butterfly Wings", distilled June 1992, matured in a single refill ex-bourbon cask, bottled mid-2021 at cask strength. 148 bottles, released October 2021 in Australia.

Colour: Pale gold. 

Nose: Nice dry, malty, spicy old dram. Malt biscuits, musty old books, antique wooden furniture. Slightly yeasty, think sourdough starter, plus a little desiccated coconut & fresh green apple. With more time green banana dusted with icing sugar, and white pepper. 

Texture: Medium weight. Rich & oily, malty & spicy. No heat at all. 

Taste: Oily, malty, spicy entry. Slightly sweeter here. Roasted almonds, malt biscuits, white pepper, touch of vanilla fudge, and a little sweet tropical fruit. That musty old book & dusty antique furniture again (yes, we're on the palate here), and that touch of icing sugar again. 

Finish: Medium length. White pepper again, more desiccated coconut & vanilla fudge, malt biscuits, and yeasty sourdough bread. Roasted almonds, soft old leather & drying wood spices. Spent malt (draff) and browning (oxidising) green apple to finish. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Lovely old school Speyside malt. There's quite a bit of wood influence, the cask hasn't been lazy, but it's not been forceful either. I'd say there's clearly been a nice slow-paced maturation where the cask has been left alone to do its thing. This AnCnoc does drink slightly above its strength, but not in an aggressive or harsh way by any means, just in a more expressive, more accessible way in terms of flavour - which is what you want in a 28-year old whisky. Having tried a 22-year old AnCnoc official bottling from a similar era (i.e. bottled a few years earlier than this one) this SMWS single cask is much more expressive, much more "old school" and really quite charming. A great example of a patiently aged Speysider that doesn't do anything unexpected, but isn't lacking in any department. Again, exactly what you want in a 28-year old whisky. 

It'd certainly be nice to go back to mid-2021 whisky pricing!

Cheers!