While many Highland distilleries abandoned their heritage of peated single malts decades ago when they closed malting floors and turned to commercial maltsters with their natural gas-fired kilns, Knockdhu has tried to keep that heritage alive with its peated malts. As we’ve noted before, Knockdhu’s malts are bottled under the anCnoc label to avoid any confusion with Speyside’s Knockando distillery, but there’s no confusing Peatheart for a Knockando.

This is Knockdhu’s most heavily peated malt in memory (40ppm of phenols), and the nose is smoky and medicinal with touches of smoked salmon, heather, charred oak, vanilla, and honey. The taste is fruity at first with pineapple and orange blossom notes, then the peatiness kicks in with a smoky taste and grilled fruits, honey, and vanilla. The finish is medium-length, smoky, and mouthwatering with touches of grilled fruits. Very nice! (January, 2018)