Knockando 12 Year Old - Managers Dram 2012

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.

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.