The real highlight of this expression is the peat smokiness filtered through sherry casking. This is Ardbeg’s signature bottle and a true gateway to the peaty style of single malt scotches. If any of the bottles pique your interest, click on the prices to try them for yourself. Think of this as a friendly introduction to the style, much like the friendly greeting you’d get if you made it to one of these tradition-bound distilleries. To get a handle on the peaty whisky of Islay, we’re calling out ten bottles we actually think you should try.
Each of the distilleries operating on the island today has its own vibe and character that imparts varying levels of peatiness into its expressions. There is no single “smoky” or “peatiness” to all whisky from Islay. Those phenols are then carried into the mash and eventually the spirit, as it goes from a cloudy beer to a refined and matured whisky.Īs with all things whisky, variation abounds. This application of heat stops the germination process and imparts phenols into the barley, creating dried malts. Peat is a traditional fuel in the fireplaces and furnaces of the Scottish Isles - so it was the natural choice to create heat and smoke to dry germinated barley. When peat use in whisky is described to the newbie, the first question is usually: But… why? The shortest answer is “history,” which has then gone on to inform the palate of many a whisky lover. Port Ellen - the small burg in the middle of the island’s windswept south shore - remains the epicenter of using peat (a flammable, super-dense soil drawn from bogs) to malt barley, which is then fermented to distill whisky. Of course, not all peated whisky comes from Islay, but most of the big names do, with Lagavulin, Ardberg, and Laphroaig all feeling pretty mainstream. Islay is renowned for its peated single malts.
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