AnCnoc 12 Year Old - 1990s

Knockdhu is a Highland distillery whose clean, high quality single malt whisky is officially bottled as An Cnoc, due to the perceived likelihood of confusion with the Knockando distillery. Inver House bought Knockdhu in 1988 from Diageo forerunners United Distillers, who had mothballed the distillery in 1983. Production at Knockdhu began again in 1989 and Inver House introduced the An Cnoc name in the early 1990s for a shortlived 12-year-old official bottling. 

After reverting to the Knockdhu name for a pair of highly-regarded 21-year-old and 23-year-old Knockdhu official bottlings at the turn of the millennium, the An Cnoc brand was given a transformative overhaul by Inver House for a hugely successful relaunch in 2003. A variety of vintage and age statement bottlings have appeared since, alongside several no-age-statement bottlings and even some peated whiskies. Independent bottlings of Knockdhu are relatively rare.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.