Knockando 15 Year

Stop number 90 on the SDT is Knockando. This Speyside distillery is neighbors with the Knockdhu distillery, which goes by anCnoc to avoid confusion. This 15 year old single malt is not available here in the US and had to be ordered from the U.K. Bottled at 43% ABV and is chill filtered and probably has colorant added making it an amber gold color. Nice sherry on the nose. Licorice, nuts, vanilla and maple. Some weak mint, syrupy sweet and more sherry. Oranges, melon and pecan pie. Some chocolate, apricots, a little floral and notes of black tea. Fruit punch, light sanded oak. Cinnamon, light clove and some ginger. Very nice, if not too complex. The palate is sweet and spicy. Not a hot spicy, but wood spices. Cinnamon and cayenne pepper, the flavor of cayenne but without the heat. Sherry, light oak and dark chocolate. Nutty, pecans and Brazil nuts. Oranges, apricots and plums. Perhaps a raisin or two. The mouthfeel is light bodied, mouthwatering and mouth coating. The finish is medium long with sherry, nuts and bitter chocolate. The bitterness persists and is a bad note on which to end. Today happens to be World Whisky Day and while I would have liked a better whisky to commemorate the day, this one was not bad. I was hoping for a bit more complexity in a 15 year old, but the flavors are good. The bitterness on the finish hurts it a little, but the nose is great. At $48 this is a great value for money, but not when you have to take international shipping rates into account. A solid 3.5 and thanks to @Scott_E for the sample. Cheers

@Scott_E might be the whisky savior of the evening. After having a couple of drams that didn't bring me the flavor, I think we've found one here. The nose has strawberry pop tarts, roses, cinnamon, and light syrup. The palate brings more cinnamon, but balanced well with powered sugar, vanilla, butter, cream, and a nice oily medium mouth coat. The medium finish lets the butter, cream and spices linger on a bit. Not overly complex, but a solid 3.5. The sherry and bourbon casks here are well done. The theme of this dram should be "Caught in the Balance" by Toto.

Midline, average, no linger, typical speysdie

1979, Bottled in 1994, 150$