Knockando 12yo 1991
Official Bottling | 43% ABV
Score: 7/10
Very Good Indeed.
TL;DR
Weighty and unctuous, stunning
The Good Ol’ Days?
I grew up in a dimly lit and oil-soaked mechanic shop. Three generations of family mechanics had inhabited this space before me and left their indelible mark both in the physical space but also in my psyche.
We were located in rural Alberta and the shop was right along a major highway, serving as a convenient pull-off to pump gas, grab a soda, or get your car fixed. In the first half of the 1900’s, this location was perfect, strategically located between two population centres that were far enough apart that the poorer reliability of older cars might need some TLC along the way.
We were also located right in the middle of a large and thriving agricultural zone, servicing all manner of large and small farm equipment. As a kid after school was out, I would help split tractors in half (yes, that’s a thing and everything is as heavy as it looks) to service them, repair all manner of farm machinery and everyone’s personal vehicles. It was a steady job especially with older and more “characterful” stuff that would get dropped off.
To service this area, my folks and those before them had to get innovative. Using an old civilian model WWII Dodge troop carrier, purchased from military surplus, a winch-driven homemade snow plow blade was attached to the front that allowed them to plow the roads to reach people snowed in, in our Canadian winter. When welding was required, they towed a homemade welding trailer that used a 1930 Ford passenger car engine to drive a generator to power the welder. Both of these still remain in the family to this day, although not for much longer as neither my brother or I have taken up the family business.
This central location, and dare I say piece of the community fabric, led to all manner of people stopping in - sometimes just to chat. When chewing the fat, or dare I say screwing the pooch, everyone who wanted to chat took away from our ability to get jobs out the door. There, inevitably, was mention of the “good old days” or “things were better back then”.
Of course, there usually was an emotional attachment or use of rose-tinted glasses of the memories of yesteryear - but in some cases, some things truly were objectively better. In many cases, these were related to their old farm truck that was simple and perhaps sometimes a bit crude, but never let them down - especially compared to the newer stuff that they had “upgraded” to and were then plagued with more bugs and less reliability. Of course, there’s always the antithesis such as the infamously terrible old Ford Pinto’s where rear-end collisions would puncture the gas tank and light the whole car on fire.
So, as with most things, nature likes things in balance; but this brings a question - was whisky better some time ago?
There have been many statements by those who’ve sampled whiskies over the past several decades, lending us their considerable insights. In summary, the general consensus has been that older whiskies, namely pre-2000s stock and bottlings, had the potential to be better, but with the caveat that the quality and experiences were more variable. So, while there was increased potential for exceptional whiskies, there was an equal and opposite potential in the other direction, with lacklustre and poor quality whiskies. Like I said, nature likes things in balance. With the inexorable march of time, more modern whiskies are generally more consistent in their quality, however there is less potential for exceptional experiences.
Since I’m a visual learner, and I wager some of you might be as well despite your continued support of our long-form content (thank you!), I’ve drafted a simple chart to demonstrate what I’ve attempted to summarise in terms of the quality - but also using our Dramface scores. This is obviously me painting with a very broad brush but you get the idea.
Review
Knockando 12yo, 1991, Official bottling, 43% ABV
CAD$100 paid incl. shipping (£35 at auction / £54 incl. Jan 2024)
Score: 7/10
Very Good Indeed.
TL;DR
Weighty and unctuous, stunning
Nose
Stewed apples. Room temp apple pie. Vanilla ice cream. Dehydrated fruit leather. Supple raw leather. Once in a while, a fruit cake or almond croissant pops up. Delicious and well-rounded with a nice density despite “only” being 43%, something few modern entry level or core range 46% whiskies achieve.
Palate
Soft and very mouth coating entry, rushing to fill all the nooks and crannies. This is syrupy stuff, again surprising given the bottling strength. More muddled and less distinctive than the nose, dare I say “integrated”. Very sweet apple pie filling, much like the canned stuff from a store versus the homemade version which is more apple-y. Dusting of cinnamon tingles push back against the sweetness, providing necessary balance. Sweet almond paste in a croissant. Fruit leather again. Drying tannins, combined with cinnamon residuals, come in on the final declining experience, almost commanding your motor neurons to reach for the glass again to restart the salivation-inducing sweetness of another nip.
Long and lingering finish with a balance of light stewed apple syrup and slight woodiness. In fact, my mind is wandering to some aspects of a well-aged cognac or brandy here. Interesting alignment.
The Dregs
This is stunning stuff really and the weightiness and lingering nature of this on the palate is a very important Broddy-factor. It’s one of the easiest 7’s I’ve ever given I think and I can’t stop drinking the stuff, despite me likely not purchasing another bottle of this due to increases in the final cost of buying at auction and the associated increased SWA auction house fees, currency conversions, and shipping [insert heavy dejected sigh].
The Scotch whisky industry has indeed declined, at least in the presentation of the more entry-level offerings, in my opinion , of course. By pure happenstance, our Wally recently discussed this “cheapening” or bastardization of core range offerings to satisfy the almighty balance sheet. I’d wager that if the modern standard 10 or 12 yo core range offerings were this good, many of us would very likely not buy the older and more expensive stocks. With the absolute neutering of core ranges, something I’ve also covered in a 30-year spread of OB Tomatin 12 yo’s, we are almost forced to buy the older and much more expensive offerings. Talk about manipulation of consumer behaviours! While it will fill short-term coffers, it lessens the long-term consumer engagement and spending habits. Oy vey.
That leaves me to the below letter to whiskymakers out there:
Please bring back the old-style stuff. The good ‘ole days were truly better, and sadly long gone. I don’t know what you did to your processes or decisions since then but you’ve strayed from The Path. Please bring them back.
This is the way.
Love,
Broddy Balfour
Whisky lover from Canada
Score: 7/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. BB
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