anCnoc Single Cask Vintage 2007 “Israeli anCnoc Club” 2021 Cask No.745

anCnoc Single Cask Vintage 2007 “Israeli anCnoc Club” 2021 Cask No.745

Bottled exclusively for The Israeli anCnoc Club 2021.

 

Barcode	5010509882750
Cask No.	745
Maturation	A single First-Fill Ex-Bourbon barrel.
No. Of Bottles	282
Distilled / Bottled	2007 / 2021 which makes it 14 Years Old
Coloured	No (100% Natural)
Chill Filtered	No
Bottling Strength	51.2% abv
Price	NIS 500
Importers	Mutag Mazon VeMashkaot Ltd
Kashrus Status	No Kashrus Issues
Certification	None

 

Knockdhu – The Distillery of Confusion

Situated in the town of Knock in Banffshire, Knockdhu distillery (pronounced “Nok-doo”) is Gaelic for “The Back Hill”. This rather obscure distillery is actually the subject of a number of disputes and general confusion.

Speyside or Highlands?

Firstly, there has been a longstanding argument as to which whisky region in Scotland Knockdhu belongs to?

The Speyside region is located within the Scottish council region of Moray, Banffshire centred around Strathspey (a large valley where the northern section of the river Spey flows). Speyside was made into a separate whisky region (some would argue sub-region), even though it sits squarely within the Highlands region. This is due to the sheer number and concentration of distilleries (more than fifty of them), within the immediate vicinity of the river.

Now, according to Inver House (the owners of the distillery), Knockdhu lies just outside the Speyside region to the North-East. Therefore, they claim that it’s a Highlands distillery. That’s why the statement “Highland Single Malt Whisky” has appeared on their labels ever since they first began to bottle Single Malt Whisky in the 1980s.

Despite this, “The Malt Whisky Yearbook”, Wikipedia (who list Knockdhu in its list of Speyside distilleries) and mostly every other whisky online resource categorises Knockdhu as a Speysider!

According to Google Maps, the Longitude of Glenglassaugh distillery, which is situated slightly east of Cullen, which everyone agrees is outside the Speyside region, is almost the same longitude as Knockdhu distillery. Based on this, perhaps the owners of Knockdhu distillery have a point?

But is there a legal definition for the borders of the different Scottish whisky regions, including Speyside? When the British government started imposing spirit tax laws on whisky producers in the 18^th century (known as the 1784 Wash Act), Scotland’s Whisky industry was split up into different regions with different tax regulations applying to the different regions. Highland distilleries were taxed based upon the size of their still, whilst Lowland distilleries were taxed per gallon of the wash. However, Speyside did not as yet exist as a separate region, being legally part of the Highlands.

Even though people have been referring to the Speyside region for hundreds of years, it was only given a legal definition by the UK government upon the publication of the 2009 amendments to the Scotch Whisky Regulations.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2009/2890/regulation/10/made

(c) “Speyside”, comprising—

(i) the wards of Buckie, Elgin City North, Elgin City South, Fochabers Lhanbryde, Forres, Heldon and Laich, Keith and Cullen and Speyside Glenlivet of the Moray Council as those wards are constituted in the Moray (Electoral Arrangements) Order 2006(2); and

(ii) the Badenoch and Strathspey ward of the Highland Council as that ward is constituted in the Highland (Electoral Arrangements) Order 2006(3).

I must admit that this definition left me none the wiser. For instance, the list of regional towns itemised in section 6(c)(i) are strangely not geographically ordered, switching from west to east and north to south seemingly at random. (Update: Silly me! I've just realised that it's actually in alphabetical order!)

For an explanation of section (ii), I turned to a Glaswegian friend for some clarity. He explained that the term “Electoral Arrangements” means that the borders are determined according to the Scottish Electoral voting region board and these borders are determined according to the historic church parish council records. According to my friend’s understanding, Knockdhu distillery, situated in the town of Knock, falls squarely within the parish boundaries of the Speyside region of Knockdhu. Furthermore, he said that in his opinion, “they are free to self-identify as a Highlander but it doesn’t change the fact that they’re a Speysider!”

Definition of a woman: Adult female human.

To briefly make a reference to a current news topic being hotly discussed in Britian currently: On April 1^st this year, the Scottish Parliament brought into law a new so called “Anti-Racist” and “Pro-Transgender” act that makes mis-gendering a man who wishes to self-identify as a woman, a criminal offense. (Despite the date, this is unfortunately not an April Fool’s joke). So, if a biological male who wishes to be identified as a woman, is called a man by someone, he (intentional use) can report that person to the police as a “hate crime”. Under the new law, the police will be forced to investigate all reports of mis-gendering. So, based on the same logic, shouldn’t Inver House be allowed to report Wiki and others to the police for “mis-regionalising” them? (I jest! Please, no one take me up on my suggestion).

 

Knockdhu or anCnoc?

The second point of confusion is the name of the whisky. The distillery was founded in 1893 by Distillers Company Ltd, better known as DCL, which at the time was the largest producers of Scotch Whisky and owned the highest number of Scottish distilleries of any other spirits company by far up to that time. In 1986, DCL was taken over by the Guinness & Co PLC, who later merged with Grand Metropolitan to become the mammoth Spirits company we know today, namely Diageo. However, in a strange twist of history, Knockdhu would not be part of this journey as just three years before the Guinness takeover, the distillery was closed and later sold off to Inver House, who still own it today, along with Balblair, Balmenach, Pulteney and Speyburn distilleries

Why am I telling you all this? Because there is another distillery which is in the heart of Speyside and this one is owned by Diageo, which just so happens to have a remarkably similar name to Knockdhu, that is “Knockando” (pronounced “Nok-an-doo”). This distillery is situated in the village of Knockando, which is a corruption of the original Gaelic term for “Cnoc Cheannachd”, meaning “Hill of Commerce”. In other words, it was the distillery in the industrial area on the hill. Diageo has been producing the only official bottling of Knockando - the “Knockando 12-Year-Old”, since 1978.

Only 30 miles away to the east, Inver House released their first Single Malt Whisky from Knockdhu distillery in 1990 which they called “The Knockdhu 12-Year-Old”, and not surprisingly, this resulted in widespread consumer confusion between the “Knockando 12” and “The Knockdhu 12”.

So, as the story goes, the executives at Inver House said to each other “No Can Do!”, this situation cannot continue!

So, in 1993, Inver House decided to change the brand name of Knockdhu Single Malt to “An CNOC” (later re-written as “anCnoc”), meaning simply “The Hill” in Gaelic, in order to try and avoid further confusion. However, the confusion between the distilleries and their whiskies continues until this day.

 

Kashrus Confusion Regarding the anCnoc 12-Year-Old

Ever since I began to compile my “Kosher Scotch Single Malt Whisky List”, Knockdhu’s core range expression, the anCnoc 12 has not been included. Why? Because if you Google this whisky for reviews, you’ll find some stating that it’s matured exclusively in Ex-Bourbon barrels and some saying that it’s matured in a combination of Ex-Bourbon and Ex-Sherry casks.

anCnoc 12 Years - Courtesy of The Whisky Exchange

Take for example, the usually reliable website of the famous whisky specialist shop “Loch Fyne Whiskies”, in Inverary.

https://www.lochfynewhiskies.com/ancnoc-12-year-old

I quote: “Matured in a combination of second fill American oak, Ex-Bourbon and Ex-Sherry casks from Spain”.

Then in 2021, I came across a YouTube video which seemed to settle the argument. The channel “DrinkBOS” features a presentation at the Knockdhu distillery of their core range of whiskies with what appears to be a brand ambassador for Inver House. So, surely, whatever he says about cask types, you can pretty much accept as fact. Right?

About 30 seconds into the video, the spokesman, talking about the 12-Year-Old, and states:

“…It is predominately Second [Refill] Fill Bourbon [barrels] with a small influence of First-Fill Spanish Oak casks”.

See YouTube video “Behind the Bottle: AnCnoc” on DrinkBOS channel, starting at 0:31:

(Let’s not get into the very confusing and contradictory phrase “First-Fill Spanish Oak”).

https://youtu.be/mk2Vqwh5MvI?t=31

So that’s it. We have a definitive answer. Right? Well, no, because recently “KF Kosher” gave it a kosher certification which proudly appears on the back label.

The “KF Kosher” organisation stands for “Kehillas Federation” in London, a relatively small kashrus organisation belonging to the Federation UK Orthodox synagogues, widely recognised as leaning more towards the stricter “Chareidi” hashkafa (religious outlook) compared to the much larger Modern Orthodox leaning “United Synagogue” of Great Britain, which also has its own associated kashrus organisation, the “KLBD” or “Kashrus of London Beth Din”. The KLBD is a member of AKO (The Association of Kashrus Organisations).

The KF, at the time of writing this article, is not yet an AKO member, so is not obliged (as yet), to keep to the current Scotch whisky AKO guidelines. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that the cRc (The Chicago Rabbinical Council), who (so I’ve been told), basically run AKO, recognises KF as a reliable kashrus organisation, as they do indeed list the anCnoc 12 Year Old as “Approved” and state that it’s certified by the KF on their cRc website.

Moreover, I would not think that the KF would not knowingly issue a hechsher to a Whisky which is partially matured in Ex-Sherry casks. I reached out to the KF and received a rather confusing answer. (I don’t wish to elaborate).

I decided that the only thing left to do was to try and pull in some favours with my contacts within the Scotch Whisky enthusiasts’ community and to try to get to speak to someone at the distillery.

I reached out to a fellow whisky “bar fly” who I know lives in the area of the distillery, and hit the jackpot by obtaining an introduction to the distillery manager himself, Gordon Bruce. In an email, I introduced myself and asked him out right, whether the anCnoc 12 contained even a small percentage of Ex-Sherry cask maturation. An answer came back within minutes. He categorically stated that the anCnoc 12 was exclusively matured in Ex-Bourbon barrels!!

So, I asked him in a follow up email, why he thought that there were so many online reviews which state that it contains a small percentage of Ex-Sherry casks in the maturation and how can he explain this video on DrinkBOS with a brand ambassador also talking about Spanish casks?

He answered me again within a few minutes and said that he really couldn’t explain it. He doesn’t usually look at whisky reviews, even of his own products. Regarding this YouTube video however, he said that the person featured had indeed worked for Knockdhu a few years ago but had since left. Despite what this person said, Gordon again assured me that they have always only ever used Ex-Bourbon barrels for this 12-Year-Old’s maturation.

So, you can now look forward to me, Be’ezras Hashem, reviewing the anCnoc 12 perhaps in the near future. But for now, let’s turn our attention back to this Single Cask special edition:

 

anCnoc Single Cask Vintage 2007 “Israeli anCnoc Club” 2021 Cask No.745, 51.2% abv

I came across this Single Cask bottle of anCnoc in Piup, Ramat Eshkol in Yerushalayim. All attempts to find out who the Israeli anCnoc Club was, came up empty. They don’t seem to have a website. The only results you get is dafka for this bottle.

What struck me first of all, was that, although stating that it was a one of 282 bottles from a single cask No.745, it neglects to state what type cask this is! I really do despair sometimes. It’s just plain lazy not to state the cask type.

It does however state in very small font, that it’s “Natural Colour and Non Chill-Filtered”. So, I took the bottle out of the box in order to assess the colour, which being natural, would give me an indication of the cask type. The colour however, is a bit enigmatic. It’s a very dark barley yellow strongly indicating that it’s Ex-Bourbon but could alternatively be a very old Refill Ex-Sherry cask. This was unlikely though as there were only 282 bottles, which again very strongly indicates that they came from a 200 litre Ex-Bourbon barrel which would typically give you around 285 bottles. In contrast, a 500L Sherry butt on the other hand would yield around 714 bottles.

Another email to my recently acquired friend, distillery manager Gordon Bruce, got me the answer I wanted. This was indeed a First-Fill Ex-Bourbon barrel and therefore had no kashrus issues. I there upon bought it with the intention to review my very first Knockdhu Single Malt.

I did actually comment to Gordon that they really should have mentioned the cask type and he agreed.

 

Packaging

The packaging reminded me of Laphroaig. The bottle comes in a white coloured tin with black, black and silver writing. Artwork and design is minimalistic. (That’s a good thing, I think). The bottle shape is generic. A little disappointing for a Single Cask edition was the cheap plastic topped cork stopper it came with.

The cork itself was real however, not a composite. The bottle has a little “gift card” around its neck giving a bit more details, including some brief tasting notes. I’m not really a fan of these little cards as I tend to lose them. I’d rather all the information be on the canister or bottle label.

 

I'm not sure that I've ever seen Nutritional values on a bottle of whisky before.

Tasting Notes

Appearance

The colour is a glorious dark rich and “dirty” looking barley colour.

Swirling the liquid around in my Glencairn Copita glass, the whisky coats the inside with a thick oily layer, which trickles slowly down producing some very impressive tears indeed.

Now, that's what I call oily!

This looks like one cereal forward juicy beauty of a malt whisky.

On The Nose

Incredibly, even at 51.2% abv, there is not a hint of nose burn. This is a very refined and well-behaved Single Malt.

Luscious yellow fruits like juicy honeydew melon, soft peach, ripe pineapple, yellow apples. Dry honey, barley sugar, something sweet and woody but not oaky. Perhaps a hint of fresh coconut?

It has a wonderful rich and complex nose, evocative of a much older Single Malt, say 20 years or more.

A major contribution to this body is the aroma (and flavour), of sweet sulphur copper pipes in a distillery. Whenever I say to someone that a whisky smells like copper pipes, it sounds like a negative comment, but it really isn’t. If you’ve ever smelt new make spirit coming off the copper stills in a Scottish distillery, then you’d know it is a truly lovely aroma.

As mentioned above, there are tasting notes included on that little piece of card. It seems to describe this as fresh tobacco but I just don’t see it. It’s definitely copper-y to me.

Tasting

Thick sweetened yellow apple puree, pineapple syrup, peach, sweet barley cereal like “Sugar Puffs”, honey, barley sugar, almond cream, coconut milk, spices like brown sugar and ginger, white pepper and nutmeg. As the liquid goes down (as mentioned already), there is this unmistakable taste of sweet sulphury copper pipes, which is not an off note but actually contributes in a very positive way.

As they say in halachic terms when an ingredient has a positive influence on the overall flavour - “noten ta’am lishvach, velo lifgam”).

Finish

Wonderfully long finish with rich yellow fruits, syrupy honey, sweet cereal notes, sweet copper pipes and spices remaining in the mouth.

 

Conclusion

What a smashing Highland (Speyside) Single Malt! I know many experienced whisky enthusiasts who, after a few years under their belt, tend to ignore most Ex-Bourbon matured Highlanders and Speysiders, finding them bland and frankly uninteresting. There are however, in my opinion, a few distilleries in this area which they really should keep their eye on. Examples being Benrinnes (Independent Bottlings), Benriach, Ardmore (Independent Bottlings), Glencadam, Ardnamurchan and a few others. What do all these fine Single Malts have in common? Well, it's a certain “je ne sais quoi”. Something special. Perhaps you cannot always put your finger on it. Perhaps some might describe it as an “off note” - which might well put many off, but which gives it character, body and complexity. Something in the smell and taste which makes it interesting. This anCnoc 14 definitely has this special ingredient in abundance and consequently Knockdhu distillery should be added to this short list of Highlander distilleries to keep on your RADAR as well.

Would I recommend this particular Single Cask bottling? There is no getting around it. It’s delicious whisky but expensive. I would definitely not recommend it to a newbie, for sure. However, for someone who thinks that they only like Islay whiskies or sherry or wine cask matured single malts, this will make them change their minds. Unfortunately, there were only 282 bottles in the first place so there won’t be many bottles left on the shelves.

This is, after all the first Knockdhu Single Malt I’ve ever tasted. To that end, I’d like to compare this 14-Year-Old to their core range, the anCnoc 12, only 2 years its younger. Perhaps I’ll find the same combinations of flavours which so endeared me to this anCnoc?

I’m looking forward to picking up a bottle of the 12-Year-Old , bli neder, soon.

Update 12th May 2024

Regarding those "copper pipe" notes I mentioned in my review, I found it interesting that in the latest edition of Malt Whisky Year Book 2024, page 123, the author mentions that Knockdhu distillery are one of only a few distilleries in Scotland who still use the old style worm tubs to cool their spirit coming off the stills. However, what makes them quite unique is the fact that they have installed a modern "Shell And Tube" condenser between the wash still and the worm tub. (As far as I am aware, this is the only distillery in Scotland with this setup). According to MWYB 2024, this results in extra reflux within the spirit which adds heavy sulphury fruity notes to the whisky. These sulphury notes could well be what I am describing as copper pipe flavour notes.