Here’s a quick review I did a few years ago during a blind tasting of some very heavy hitting malts. At the time, I had no idea what I was tasting but it hit all the right notes for me to know that 1.) This was right up my alley and 2.) This was some old stuff. As it turned out, I was right.
Knockdhu distillery doesn’t get the credit it deserves for the anCnoc line. This is consistently good whisky at affordable prices from the 12 year old expression all the way through the older releases. This is a review of anCnoc 1975, a 39 year old whisky bottled in 2014. Despite my guess that there was ex-bourbon cask influence here, this whisky is comprised of just three refill sherry casks (both Spanish and American oak). anCnoc 1975 was bottled without chill filtration or additional coloring (like it needed it) and as you’ll soon see, those 39 years did some tremendous things to this whisky.
| Category | Notes |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Copper |
| Nose | Bourbon influence, toffee, vanilla, old books, leather, a meaty nose, prunes, caramel |
| Taste | Incredibly spicy, leather couch, thick and oily, old wood, some citrus surprisingly |
| Finish | A blast of spice, more old wood, the citrus pokes through again for a minute, long, vanilla, oily, mouth coating, |
| Overall Thoughts | My kind of whisky, dark, dank, and old. |
| Total Score | 96/100 |
4 comments
That does sound like a superb release… Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Cheers, Ed
Thank you, Ed. It was truly an incredible whisky experience and one I wish I can repeat again soon! Cheers!
I have to say that I have been truly impressed with this whiskey. I found it in a random liquor store in California and wanted to try something special. I thought $500 was steep but I got way more than I payed for. The second dram will blow you away with an extremely long finish. The smell of old books vanilla and dried fruits is prevalent and intoxicating in all the best ways. I could just nose this and be happy. Thank you for your review.
There’s something truly special and underrated about anCnoc—especially really old stuff like this. So glad to see that you enjoyed it as well!