For the festive season, we have collaborated with the Knockando whisky team to create an atypical case, only available at the cellars. The limited edition comes in the form of an ‘arch’ case, with a closed section for two tasting glasses. By its play of materials, the case makes reference to the distillery’s cellars by recalling the holds of the casks. However, the case is entirely made of cardboard. The opening of the case highlights the ‘Single Malt, 21 years’ bottle. The Glasspack is designed to be elegant while remaining in the brand’s DNA. Knockando whiskies are part of the brand portfolio of the MHD (Moët Hennessy Diageo) group.

Knockando (“little black hill” in Scottish Gaelic) is a whisky distillery in Speyside near Ballindalloch in Moray, Scotland. It produces a classic single malt, with conical pot stills for the first distillation and boil ball stills for the second distillation.

The distillery was created by John Thompson in 1898, near the source of the Cardnach River, of which he had acquired the exclusive pumping rights. The distillery adopted the name of the neighboring town, a village with two hundred inhabitants today, surrounded by forests where many nozzles can be found.

When it was built, the distillery was the first to be equipped with electric lighting. However, this modernity also illustrated the ease with which capital could then be raised in the whisky industry: the “whisky bubble” exploded in 1898, when the brothers Robert & Walter Pattison went bankrupt1. Although production started in May 1899, the “Pattison crisis” led to the closure of the distillery ten months later.

In 1900, the distillery was closed2 and became the property of J. Thomson & Co3.

The distillery was bought by W&A Gilbey Ltd, a famous London gin producer in 1904, which consolidated the growth of the company. In 1905, the distillery was connected to the Northern Scotland Railway, which linked Grantown-on-Spey to the major cities of North-East Scotland.

Like most Scottish distilleries, the Knockando distillery was shut down during the two World Wars.

In 1962, W&A Gilbey Ltd became International Distillers and Vintners Ltd when W. Gilbey merged with International Distillers and Vintners Ltd in 1962. & A. Gilbey and Unwin’s, owner of Justerini & Brooks. The new management modernized the facilities in 19692, doubling production from two to four stills. Knockando became the property of GrandMet (Grand Metropolitan Hotels) in 1975, which became the Diageo Group in 1997 when GranMet merged with Guinness PLC.

Its single malt is still bottled in vintage versions, and the sale of single malt that began in 1878 brought Knockando to the eighth position of single malt exporters. However, only 8% is sold as single malt, with the remainder being used in the blended whiskies Justerini & Brooks and Spey Royal1,2.