The recently released Peatheart is the first peated expression to join the distillery’s core range of ‘AnCnoc’ range of whiskies. That’s not to say that this Knockdhu’s first ever peated whisky, far from it – over the last four years, there has been at least 9 limited edition peaty AnCnoc’s all of which have drawn their names and visual identities from the tools used to gathering peat (The ones that I’m aware of: Cutter, Flaughter, Rascan, Rudhan, Rutter, Stack, Tushkar and Peatlands). But, now Peatlands is here to provide the AnCnoc range with a permanent peaty home.
Being a Londoner, I’m rather spoilt for choice when it comes to whisky bars. Whilst many venues have and do offer a broad selection of brown liquids, it is really only over the last decade or so, that I’ve noticed whisky moving from out of the traditional pub/bar space and into what are dedicated, specialist venues. Floor to ceilings with bottles, menus so vast as to take the indecisive drammer (there’s a name for a new blog) longer to select a whisky as to actually drink it. But, this all comes at a price. A very literal high price. Drinking anything in London outside of the norm – older, discontinued, or limited release bottlings - requires deep pockets. Business is business, and whisky can be a very profitable one.
The Ancnoc brand is not nearly as long-lived as the distillery is harks from. Knockdhu was built in 1894, close to Knock Station to take advantage of the Banff branch of the Great North Scotland Railway. It was also conveniently located close to sources of both barely and peat. But, in 1989, current owners – Inver House – decided that the name of the distillery was too similar to that of another Speyside producer, namely Knockando and thus Ancnoc (meaning Black Hill) was selected as the brand to represent the whisky produced at Knockdhu ,with the first bottling under the new name being released in 1993.
Knockdhu’s peated AnCnoc range has had something of an intermittent run. At one point there were a broad number of editions all possessing in-bottle PPMs (I likes that) and harking back to tools used to cut peat – several of which I’d never seen nor heard of. Nevertheless, despite my predilections for all things smoky, I still to date have preferred the unpeated AnCnoc bottlings that the distillery has released - several of which have scored well on the pages of The Dramble.
A straight up refill ex-bourbon barrel for this 8 year old AnCnoc (Knockdhu).
Where do they get these names….I mean honestly?! 9 year old AnCnoc (or Knockdhu as it were) that’s been drawn from a refill ex-bourbon barrel.
9 years in ex-bourbon and an additional maturation in a 2nd fill PX hogshead for this AnCnoc.