A little online research tells me that the Knockando distillery is owned by Diageo and is part of their classic malts series. The distillery has 4 stills with a capacity of 1.8 million Liters per annum. It's located in the Speyside region of Scotland. An interesting fact is that they bottle this whisky in seasons which apparently means that every bottle contains only whisky produced from over the course of a single year. My bottle was distilled in 2000 making it Millennium whisky! Nice! The regulations with Scotch are that if they put an age statement on a bottle it means that the youngest whisky incorporated into the mix must adhere to the age statement, however several different whiskys of varying age (older of course) can be added in order to achieve a distinct and consistent recognizable character associated with a particular brand or label. so that would mean that this particular whisky might be subject to greater variation from one year to the next a little like wine vintages.
Price: good! 50 bucks from memory in duty free on the way back from Singapore a few years ago, however looking now online it's available for c. $81 Australian which I think is a little steep - 5/6Appearance: This looks a very natural light straw colored gold, I doubt anything has been added to this, and the website confirms that fact, but wait written in dutch( I think) is something to the effect of Caramel colorant is added, well at least they are kind of honest about it and it can't be much that they're adding based on the extremely light color - a little strange really - 5/6
Availability: I can get this online but I've never seen it in any bottle shop over here - one of the reasons I picked it up in the duty free. I've seen it on the menu in a very good whiskey bar in Melbourne but never in a regular pub or restaurant - 3/6
Marketing: little to speak of really! There is a web page devoted to the distillery which tells a little bit about it and also states that it's not open to the public which is a shame because the photo up depicts a beautiful woodlands setting. There are no adds for this on YouTube as far as I can tell. It's a little mysterious - again that's one of the reasons I picked up the bottle. Whatever little bit of marketing there is appears to be factual and related to the history, setting and development of the distillery which is good, no B.S. - 4/6Packaging and presentation: this whisky comes in a nice plain brown round cardboard container, fairly easy on the eye, and recyclable. The text on the box tells me the age statement and year of distillation, has the distillery managers signature, a royal seal of approval! On the back there's a nice little bit of text telling you all about distillery and how only the purest water and finest ingredients are used. The label is much the same as the box. Oh and yes this whiskey is bottled in clear glass at 43% but curiously in dutch there is a statement about the addition of caramel colorant and no mention of chill filtration. - 5/6
Nose: this is a fairly subtle whisky, I can smell the malt, a very slight hint of peat, yes this is a peated whisky even though it's a Speysider. It smells slightly fresh - slightly floral - like some sort of hint of freshness you'd get from a laundry conditioner, nice but very understated - 13/20
Taste on entry: this is fairly light, pleasant tasting whisky, slightly sweet, i'm getting some fruit - pears.. initially, I really enjoyed drinking this during the summer months I found it refreshing - 14/20
Mouth feel/ body: the whiskey feels good and has a really lovely balance to it - 9/10
Finish: more pleasant light sweetness, some citrus almost like watered down orange and some light stone fruits - like a pale nectarine and a lovely light taste of peat smoke coming in on the end and lingering for a little bit but nottoo long - 15/20
Total score for this is 73/100.
Cheers!
Kev
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