Tag: Caol Ila

The complete guide to peat and peated whisky

Are you wanting to know more about peat and smoky whiskies?  Want to know what makes a whisky smoky in the first place?  Peat is one of the least understood aspects of the whisky industry, but fear not:  Our complete guide to peat will make you an instant expert on the topic.

Most whisky drinkers will remember and can pinpoint the first time they tasted a heavily peated whisky.  Like a fork in the road, it was probably a “love it or hate it” moment….there is rarely middle ground or ambivalence when your tastebuds first encounter a truly peaty, medicinal, smoky whisky.  But things change…

Would it be crude to suggest that Scotch whisky drinkers thus fall into three camps?  There are those that hate peated whisky; those that love peated whisky; and those that are actively and earnestly transitioning at some point between those two extremes.  No matter where you sit on that three-pointed scale, this guide will assist you in understanding all the ins and outs of peat and the role it plays in Scotch whisky.  (And we’ll touch on Irish whiskey, too).  So settle in with a dram of your favourite malt and let’s cover some facts and dispel a few myths….     Continue reading “The complete guide to peat and peated whisky”

Islay – Its distilleries and its whiskies

[Updated 2024] With Islay’s smoky, pungent, peaty whiskies gaining increasing popularity and traction around the globe, and with whisky tourism to Islay growing, now is a great time to come to terms with the island and its whiskies. Here’s a unique and new way of presenting Islay’s critical information….

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Diageo Special Releases 2016

Does the Diageo Special Releases 2016 range need an introduction?  For anyone who’s entered the single malt whisky scene in recent years, the choice and array of bottlings, brands and releases can be overwhelming.  Almost 30 years ago now, the situation was very different when Diageo launched “The Classic Malts” – first into travel retail in 1988, and then into the domestic market in 1989.   Those six whiskies (Glenkinchie, Cragganmore, Oban, Dalwhinnie, Talisker, and Lagavulin) became the vehicle through which hundreds of thousands of people were introduced to malt whisky.  For close to a decade they were almost the definitive collection and – notwithstanding the omnipresence of the likes of Glenfiddich and Glenlivet – it was only by the late 1990’s that other brands and recognisable labels started to consistently appear in regular retail outlets.

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Whisky Live, Sydney – 2015

As outlined in previous posts (e.g. here) the emerald city of Sydney is blessed  to have three major whisky expo shows pass through each year.  June 26/27 was time for Whisky Live to take centre stage and yours truly went along as a paying customer to the opening Friday night session.

Whisky Live has been running in Sydney since 2009 and it’s the same, original organisers still at the helm.  For reasons none other than inconvenient timing or simply being out of town when the show rolled around, it had been a number of years (four?) since I last attended Whisky Live, so I was keen to see how the current incarnation played out.

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When fixation on peat and PPM gets OTT

If you’re a fan of peat and peaty whiskies and you do a bit of reading or googling on the subject, it’s not too long before you encounter the letters “ppm”.   And never have three letters caused so much excitement, passion, enthusiasm…and confusion:   Parts Per Million.

A lot of whisky appreciation these days revolves around comparison and relativity.   Examples?  We measure or define how sherried a whisky might be by comparing it to a well-known benchmark: “The Macallan Fine Oak isn’t as heavily sherried as Aberlour a’Bunadh.” Or, “If you like the smokiness of Talisker 10, you’ll probably enjoy Bowmore 12.”

Where ppm sticks its nose in and causes problems is that people use it as a yardstick for comparing smokiness and peatiness in whisky. And that in itself causes dramas, as there are plenty of people out there who still don’t appreciate that smokiness and peatiness are two different things. Yes, you can have one without the other.  More on that in a moment.

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Lagavulin or Laphroaig – which is better?

It’s the question every Islay whisky fan asks themselves at some point in their whisky journey:  Laphroaig or Lagavulin – which one is better?  Is there a definitive answer?  Yes, there’s some juicy stuff we can explore over the next minute or two…

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