Quiz 4: Islay

This time we go to Islay, a famous scottish whisky Island with 8 working distilleries.

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All Quizzes here: http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.dk/2010/04/i-made-series-of-whisky-trivia-quizzes.html

Beginner's Guide to Whisk(e)y part 2 : Peated Whiskies

Peated Whisky...

Amateur peat digger on Islay..

It's whisky with a smoky flavour. Medicinal flavour. It's very different. It's an acquired taste. Some love it, some hate it.

The flavour origins from peat being used as fuel to dry the malted barley. The peatsmoke infuses the barley with these characteristic flavours. The barley is then used to brew a beer which is distilled into what becomes whisky!

Here's a small guide to help you find peaty and smoky whiskies!

There is almost 100 distilleries in Scotland. Of these just 7 distilleries makes a peated whisky as their main product. Yes, just 7!

They are :

Ardbeg, Lagavulin, Laphroaig, Bowmore, Caol Ila, Kilchoman and Talisker

The first 6 are located on the isle of Islay, Talisker is on the isle of Skye

Islay, Queen of the Hebrides

Kilchoman on Islay started production recently, in 2005.

Port Ellen on Islay closed production in 1983, but whisky from this distillery is still available. It's old by now!

The last two Islay distilleries are traditionally making non-peated whisky. Bruichladdich has a side production of various peated versions (They call it Port Charlotte and Octomore). Bunnahabhain also has made smaller productions of peated whisky. But do assume that Bruichladdich and Bunnahabhain is NOT peated unless you can read so on the label.

Two more distilleries could be added to this list. Ardmore, from the East Highlands, is somewhat peated but harder to find. Highland Park is also moderately peated but not much in my opinion. These are not peated on the same scale as the others mentioned here, but occasional you find bottlings from these distilleries where the peat is dominant

A lot of distilleries uses tiny amounts of peat in their production, but if you are searching peaty whiskies this is not really what you are looking for.

Just like Bruichladdich and Bunnahabhain, quite a few distilleries have been or is making smaller productions of peated whisky. This has been done both to accomodate blends, but also as a part of a general peated release from the distilleries.

The more well known of these are Tobermory (Ledaig), Springbank (Longrow), Edradour (Ballechin), Tomintoul (Old Ballantruan), Isle of Jura, Arran, Benriach and Benromach.
Harder to find, there are peated versions of Caperdonich, Bladnoch, Glen Garioch, Fettercairn, Glen Scotia, Loch Lomond and probably more. You never know what distilleries have hidden inside their warehouses over the years.

Outside Scotland, you can find peated whiskies from Japan (Hakushu and Yoichi to name a couple, but read labels, these are not peated by default). Cooley from Ireland and Amrut from India has also been making peated versions. McCarthy's from Oregon is a peated american single malt whiskey.

The ones I high-lighted in red should be part of any aspiring whisky entusiasts whisky eduction and if you are really ambitious I would try to source out some Brora from 1970-1972 or so, but it will cost you

Ardbeg

PS There's is so much more to be told about peated whiskies, there has been written full books on the subject, I can personally recommend Peat, Smoke and Spirit by Andrew Jefford

PPS Phenols, which is the molecules responsible for the peaty flavours are broken down as a whisky matures. Peaty flavours are slowly lost as a cask matures

Peat mania

This week (yesterday) Bruichladdich had this press release

http://www.laddieblog.com/laddieblog/Blog/Entries/2011/6/30_(Even_More)_Octomore.html

With a bachelor in chemistry and being a whiskygeek I always find info releases like this very interesting. The fact that the phenol components is specified is something I would like to see and compare from a range of malts actually, but that's not the point of this blog post

I am pretty sure that the thing that everybody will remember and pay most attention to in Bruichladdich's press release, is the number 309ppm. Phenol content is measured im ppm. Parts per million. This is a scale used to describe very low content of a given substance

Peaty whiskies always had it's own cult followers, often named peatophiles or peatjunkies. The more peaty a whisky is  - the better. Traditionally the level of peatyness in a whisky was/is said to be highest in Ardbeg.
50-55ppm.

If you look around the internet or in whiskybooks, the peat levels of the traditional islay's might vary slightly, but as a general rule it was Ardbeg at no. 1 spot, with Laphroaig second at 40-45ppm and Caol Ila and Lagavulin third with 35ppm

The fact that peating barley isn't an accurate proces influences these numbers. Getting malt from Port Ellen maltings should give the distilleries a consistent product. Part of the malt Laphroaig uses are from their own fllor maltings and kilns, which is a harder component to control

Around 9-10 years ago Bruichladdich started the peat race introducing a batch of Octomore at 80ppm, later values in high 100's and this week the above mentioned 309ppm!!

An amateur digging peat on Islay

Ardbeg has (slightly thou) joined this race with their Supernova whiskies peated at 100ppm.

Now all this ppm mania has caused some discussion amongst whisky entusiasts over the years and a few points has to be noted. 

Different measurement methods will give different ppm values. This has caused some arguments about values being comparable. This set aside, another fact that's quite important is that the ppm value is given for the phenol content of the barley. 

Mr. Tattie Head, a regular whisky forum contributor pointed out :

And I will say once again that ppm's for malt are irrelevant. I'm not going to eat the malt.

As soon as the barley is milled, brewed and distilled things have changed. It's a fact that most of the phenols are in the husks of the barley and that the distilling proces do affect the final phenol content

In the new destillates, Laphroaig actually have the highest phenol content at 25ppm closely followed by  Ardbeg at 23-24ppm, Lagavulin at 16-18ppm and Caol Ila at 13-14ppm - according to Jefford's Peat, Smoke and Spirit

It doesnt stop here. When a malt whisky is maturing the phenol's are somehow broken down. Older whisky has a lower ppm content than younger whisky given the same start point

So the ppm value of a whisky really doesnt describe the "peatyness" of a whisky. The taste expereince might not correspond to the numbers given.

Another fact that has to be concerned is that different types of phenols has different flavours. So two malts with same ppm will taste different. The source of the peat itself is important and the kilning proces as well. In the world of whisky this is mainly noted in the fact that Islay peat flavours the whisky different than Speyside peat or Orkney peat will do. Even peat from different parts of Islay affects the barley with different flavours.

So how "peaty" a whisky tastes is something, and the ppm value given on the label is something different. There's a lot of additional factors as I just described. Age, cask, distillation and origin of peat namely.

So tassting the end product is the only way to tell how peaty a whisky really is!

But why this fascination with ppm values ?.

I am sure everybody remember's the first time they tasted a heavily peated malt whisky. With horror, fascination or total subjugation!

This first-time peat shock surprise is something that's hard to repeat. With time and experience you get used to  the taste of peated whisky. I even sometimes have the feeling I am immune to peat. I yearn for the peat shock experiences of my early whisky years. It just doesn't happen like that anymore.. (and I haven't even mentioned that some products have changed to a more light version over the years, thats another story)

I have to admit that neither the Octomores I have tasted nor the Ardbeg Supernovas has given me the same peat shock expereince as the first time I tasted a Laphroaig 10yo 15-20 years ago

The only thing that has come close was when I had a dram of Edradour Ballechin Burgundy finished a couple of years ago. This is described as 55ppm, so number-wise it can't compete with the Octomores or the Supernovas.

I do find that peat needs something to work against. Tasting contrasts do work for me. Peat in a heavily sherried whisky might be disguised, but if you catch the contrast, the same whisky can give you quite a decent peat shock expereince

So it's also a lot about what happens in your head as well as what's in the glass..