Knockdhu Distillery, Scotland     founded: 1894 | active
For more detailed mapping of the distilleries in the area from our whisky map page, use this link.

This whisky was sampled on two consecutive nights by two separate groups. This review is merged from both, see the comments section for below for thoughts on the group differences.

Fruitastic on the nose, with Apple jolly ranchers, tinned tropical fruit cocktail, stewed / fermenting apples, pears, pear drops, Tangfastics, strawberry cables (sweets), gooseberries, mango and Morello cherries! Banana foams give us a link from fruit to toffee, with coconut and tree sap watching from the sidelines. Flying saucers too (presumably the sweets?), but also a touch of bleach and Glacier Mints - a mixed bag!

It's still pretty fruity - now it's banana, cherry and orange blossom at the fore. It's got a Higland character and sugar syrup is prevelant ('shockingly sweet'), but seems a bit youthful tasting and flavour-free - perhaps a bit watery too. Dark chocolate and black pepper spice things up, butterscotch gives us a toffee edge and diluted marzipan and aspartame bring us back down to Earth.

Short and weak - but a bit burny. Tangerines and Vimto keep that fruitiness, but it's fresh and steamy at best! 'The Sword in the Peniston'. It's OK!

We've got a couple of things to investigate with regards to this An Cnoc. Firstly, how the two groups rated it, but we also had an An Cnoc 35yo on hand as a comparison - would they be dramatically different? We'll explore the 2nd question in the 35yo review, but how did we get on with this standard bottling?



As you can see from the blue lines, both groups found it pretty similar, with similar scores and patterns across the attendees. No one loved it, but a few returned to it later and found it pleasant enough. With a score range of 2.5-6/10 though, there are better options at this (admittedly quite low) price point.

~£30 (70cl)