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Day 16 - KWM 2024 This Is Not An Advent Calendar - Boutique-y 18 Year Highland Single Malt (Peated)

Posted on January 30, 2025

Day 16 — Boutique-y 18 Year Highland Single Malt (Peated) — 45.8%

By Evan

Today we will be exploring a release from That Boutique-Y Whisky Company for the third time in this year’s KWM Not An Advent Calendar Tasting set. Like the 30-Year-Old Blended Grain Whisky we tasted back on day three in this series, this bottling is part of Boutique-Y’s current core range. Say hello to the Boutique-Y Highland 18-Year-Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky!

As often happens with That Boutique-Y Whisky Company releases, we once again have a bit of a mystery on our hands. The label shows a stag against a green background, with an ear tag that reads “Highland Peated”.

There is no information on exactly which distillery this single malt comes from, and it could possibly change from small batch to small batch. The current iteration is rumoured to be peated Knockdhu though, which would be great since we have never had a Knockdhu in our whisky calendars before from what I can recall! So let’s take that notion as fact and talk a little bit about the Knockdhu distillery.

Knockdhu was founded back in 1893, and more or less operated steadily for the next 100 years – except for short closures during the great depression and World War II — until the great Scottish distillery cull of 1983 nearly killed it for good. Knockdhu was mothballed at that time by then-owners DCL, but in 1988 a buyer by the name of Inver House was found. Inver House Distillers itself was founded in 1964 and lead the newly built Glen Flagler malt Distillery and Garnheath grain distillery on the same site in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire in the Scottish Lowlands. Glen Flagler and Garnheath were closed never to reopen in 1985 and 1986 respectively, a few years before the Knockdhu Distillery purchase.

After its purchase of Knockdhu in 1988, Inver House went on to add a few more distilleries to its portfolio over the following decade. Speyburn (purchased in 1991), Pulteney (acquired in 1995), Balblair (purchased in 1996) Balmenach (purchased in 1997), are all still part of the Inver House lineup, along with Knockdhu. Inver House Distillers itself changed hands a few times during its lifespan, but has been owned by the big-in-Asia company Thai Beverage since 2006.

Ever had an official bottling of Knockdhu? It might be hard to know. Official bottlings are not actually given the distillery name for release. Instead, they are given the name anCnoc, possibly to avoid confusion with another Scottish distillery named Knockando. Funny how attempting to avoid confusion often makes things even more confusing instead, isn’t it?

At least they didn’t go with Chamuis Dhu, I suppose.

The Knockdhu Distillery resides in the village of Knock within Aberdeenshire. This puts the distillery in the East Highlands or Speyside, depending on who is drawing the regional maps. The SWA’s own Scottish Distillery map classifies Knockdhu as being within Speyside. However, the owner -Inver House — put Highland Single Malt on each bottle of anCnoc it sells. If this bottle is indeed peated Knockdhu, then it seems That Boutique-Y Whisky Company agrees with Inver House's stance and not the SWA's. I am all for people disagreeing with the Scotch Whisky Association, so let's call that a win.

Distilleries located near Knockdhu include GlenDronach, which less than a 20-minute drive to the south and east, and Aultmore which is about the same length of drive to the west. Like Knockdhu/anCnoc, GlenDronach also considers itself a Highland Single Malt, and has a fetish for capitalizing a letter in the middle of its name for some reason. Aultmore is comfortable in calling itself a Speyside whisky, though. Don’t you just hate it when invisible and intangible lines are what classify things? Oh, well. What would we talk about if there weren't any arbitrary and antiquated regional concepts to make fun of?

Knockdhu has quietly produced fantastic unpeated Single Malt Scotch for quite a while. It creates a robust and rich spirit that matures nicely in both ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry casks. Part of the reason for this might be because it is one of the distilleries that makes use of worm tubs to cool the spirit that comes off the lyne arms at the top of the stills — a worm tub made of cast iron and connected to the lyne arms that run off the spirit stills in this case.

A small portion of production each year is heavily peated in style – between 20 and 40PPM based on what we have seen from official releases. And that brings us back to the mystery malt we are going to taste today.

Knockdhu plays a role in at least some of the Blended Scotch whisky brands owned by Inver House such as Catto's, Hankey Bannister, and MacArthur's. It is also used often by Turntable Blending House.

Is this Knockdhu? Or is it from some other Highland or not-Highland distillery? Does it really matter? Beyond discrediting my entire blog post here – probably not.

Let’s just toss my above writing in the bin and taste the whisky already!

Boutique-y 18 Year Highland Single Malt — 45.8%

“Don't anCnoc it till you've tried it! This 18-year-old mystery peated Highland single malt Scotch is part of the Boutique-y Core Range, bottled at 45.8%. From a mix of ex-Bourbon, Oloroso, & PX Sherry casks. Rumour has it, this is peated Knockdhu… very cool, and well priced!”

Producer Description

“Elevate your senses with the remarkable complexity of our 18 Year Old Highland single malt, a masterful fusion of highland peat and sherry cask maturation that embodies the best of two worlds.

From a marriage of ex-Bourbon, Oloroso, and Pedro Ximenez casks, savour the exquisite balance of smoke and sweetness that define its character.

A small batch release of circa 1,000 litres each time

Non chill-filtered, and natural cask matured colour”

Evan’s Tasting Note

Nose: Roasted meats, iodine, leaves that have fallen to the ground in autumn, lemons, raspberries, blackberries, chocolate pudding, and Coffee Crisp chocolate bar.

Palate: Creamy and smoky with more chocolate pudding, custard, cherries, marmalade, pineapple chunks, roasted almonds, and a touch of eggnog and nutmeg.

Finish: Fairly clean with a touch of spice and creamy, chocolatey tiramisu on the fade.

Comment: Superb dram. Great balance of peat and sweet with a touch of spice. If this is Knockdhu, that is great! If it is not, that is also great!

Andrew's Tasting Note

Nose: malty, fruity, and peaty, with decadent spice; chewy malt with ashy peat; juicy citrus notes of grapefruit, nectarine, and orange; creamy banana and watermelon bubblegum; buttery toasted oak, and allspice.

Palate: malty, fruity, and creamy, with more ashy peat and spice; the malty is chewy, balancing nicely with creamy oak tones and ashy peat; a hint of southwest BBQ; the fruits are predominantly in the citrus realm, though they stray a little into the tropical: grilled pineapple and underripe mango; more watermelon bubblegum and warm banana split, with some dried dark fruits to boot; toasty oak, allspice, and building chocolate tones.

Finish: long, toasty, and smoky, with fading citrus, chocolate, spices, and ashy malt; a touch medicinal.

Comment: a tip from friends led me to crack a bottle of this, and it hasn't disappointed; this is excellent value for an 18 year old!

Peat in the first dram for the fourth round of dramples for this year's Not an Advent Calendar, huh? An odd choice by us to be certain. Where do we go from here? Come back tomorrow to find out!

Cheers,
Evan

Playing catch-up on our 2024 This Is Not An Advent Calendar?

You can find the rest of the blog posts here!

This entry was posted in Whisky, Travel, Whisky Calendars, Distillery, Independent Bottler, Tastings - Online Tasting, KWM 2024 Not An Advent Calendar Tastings

 

 

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