Knockando 1980-1993 - SMWS 101.2

Knockando is a 19th century Speyside distillery owned by Diageo, and is bottled as a range of age-statement vintage single malts in addition to making a large amount of mediumweight, nutty Speyside single malt whisky for the J&B blend. Like J&B, Knockando is relatively obscure in the UK but is a popular brand elsewhere, with the distillery’s single malt particularly appreciated in Europe. 

Knockando is known for its excellent old vintage official bottlings, with the particularly fine Master Reserve and Extra Old Reserve 1960s and 1970s vintages bottled in the 1980s and 1990s all great examples of richly-flavoured, elegant single malt whiskies that usually offer terrific value at auction. Knockando’s importance to the J&B blend means that independent bottlings are extremely rare.

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) began in late 1970s Edinburgh when founder Pip Hills persuaded a group of friends to chip in for a cask of Glenfarclas, and was officially formalised in 1983. Today the SMWS has two venues in Edinburgh, a London bar and a string of international partnerships serving its 35,000 members. 

The Society’s whiskies are known for their unique SMWS coding system. Each cask bottled is assigned two numbers, representing the distillery and the bottling number, so 1.45 is the forty-fifth cask bottled from the first distillery and 33.27 is the 27th cask from the 33rd distillery.

Glenmorangie bought the Society in 2004, but sold it in 2015 to a private consortium who floated the SMWS on the stock market in 2021 via their holding company Artisanal Spirits Co.