Distillery Tour #4: Knockdhu
Wake up, wake up! After two days of delicious whisky, scrumptious food, and outstanding company, we have only one more distillery visit ahead of us. Day three sees our arrival at Knockdhu (anCnoc), where in the rain we are greeted by distillery manager Gordon Bruce and his two friendly dogs. The first sight to hit our eagerly awaiting eyes was that of the two recently completed warehouses, which will replace the two that couldn’t quite handle the heavy snow a couple of winters back.
Gordon delivered an interesting tour which, as ever, ended with a tasting session. As you can see from the photo above, the “visitor’s center” at Knockdhu is similar to that of Balblair in shape, but rather less modern and sleek! That’s because the offices are also being refurbished, but by the looks of things they should be ready soon. We certainly didn’t mind, however, as the cupboards hidden behind the tarpaulin held all kinds of magic – in addition to tasting their 12 and 16 year old expressions, we were lucky enough to get to try various other unreleased gems. These included a 5 year old expression matured in a white oak casks (they had bought the casks under the premise of them being red oak, and with that not being the case look unlikely to release it at present, even though it was rather tasty!), as well as a couple of peated(!) expressions, the release of which Mr. Bruce was rather more secretive about. When eventually they are released, however, I have a feeling that they will be very popular.
Starting with the 12, the nose presents citrus which reminded me (in a good way) of Hall’s cough drops, along with honeyed sweetness, light grass, and very soft red apples. The palate remains fruity, with melon, pear and some citrus, but not quite as pronounced as on the nose. There’s also sultanas and a butterscotch-like vanilla.
The 16 year old, meanwhile, is maltier and more aromatic on the nose, and more intensely citrusy than the 12. There’s a lot of other fruit as well, like pears, strawberries and peach, along with a whisper of chamomile and vanilla. The palate is similarly fruity, with the sweetness turning more towards honey and fudge.
I won’t go into details on most of the unreleased and unconfirmed whiskies we were lucky enough to taste, but I can’t help but write about my favorite: a peated expression from 2006. I simply liked it too much not to write about it! The nose was outstanding, and the first thing I thought as I took a sniff was “smoked, honey-glazed ham” with the slightest whisper of freshly cooked kippers being served a few tables away, accompanied by a lovely saltiness, and pear sweetness. I don’t know whether I found this particularly appealing partly because we hadn’t had any really peated whiskies during the trip, but I wasn’t far from drooling into my own lap. The palate started off with the pear sweetness found towards the end on the nose, which seamlessly melted into smoke, light brine, and a tantalizing bit of bacon towards the back. The finish, surprisingly, was a bit nutty – the best way I can describe it being smoked hazelnut. Can’t wait for this stuff to hit the shelves!
