Best non islay peated whisky you have tried

This topic's always good for another update & recap. And I was thinking about the same thing myself just this morning. I recently got a bottle made largely of peated Ben Nevis (Lossit, from The Lost Distillery Company) and I was spitballing with a member of my club about what the theme should be when we open it. "Non-Islay Peaters" would be the easiest—the first that come to mind are Benriach's peaters, like Curiositas and Longrows, but I bet we'll get other ideas here.

To answer @Robert99's question:

•Benriach Solstice 17

•Edradour Ballechin Port

•Talisker 57 (Yeah, I agree—Talisker feels like a bit of a cheat on this question.)

Good question! For me its an even race between Amrut peated CS and Longrow Red 11yrs port. Different in style but two marvelous whiskies! Both best served neat at high strength.

Amrut Peated Cask Strength, Longrow Rundlets and Kilderkins, Talisker 57 Degrees North, Talisker 175th Anniversary.

Wow! So many to choose from. It might be helpful to look at those where peat doesn't work so well.

I would say Amrut peated CS is my favourite peated whisky ever (if not my favourite whisky). Another non-Islay that is outstanding is Springbank 12YO CS, and I agree that Talisker 57 N is excellent.

My favourite Scotch Distillery WAS Bladnoch, under Raymong Armstrong. All the expressions I've tasted have (eventually) been good, but I have to admit the sherry bombs with "lightly peated" are less successful than the unpeated ones.

Do we count HP as peated?

Also, I had a bottle of Benriach Authenticus that was fantastic. Peated. PX finish. All came together.

Benromach 10 Imperial Proof...still gotta try the "Peat Smoke."

Many Longrows with the exception of the intro-level "Peated" which replaced the tremendous CV. I find it fairly uninteresting.

Looks like I need to grab a bottle of the Amrut Peated CS.

@KRB80, I agree about the Longrow. The "Peated" is totally fine, but it pales next to the old CV. C'est la vie.

The whole Longrow range is weird, isn't it? Their basic bottle is a fine-but-nondescript NAS, which seems rather non-Springbanky to me. And then it's just a bunch of weird one-offs in funky casks. I like 'em, but it's weird.

@KRB80 I really didn't feel the Ben 10 "imperial proof" (as you call it - my bottles are 100 proof) was particularly peaty. I found the standard 10 more peaty.

I just got home early (mid afternoon) from a cold and wet field trip. Waiting for me at home was the bottle of Ledaig I had ordered. A half sized dram to try it out. Instantly I thought of Caol Ila. Lovely peat profile. To be fair though - although it is from Mull the malt is peated on Islay - so does that make it a Islay peated whisky or not?

@Hewie

Ah, so they get their peated malt from Islay, huh? Now of course we all know that the technical answer to your question is "no," but practically speaking, I think I'd lean "yes"!

Surely the most important of making a peated whisky is the peat, so if they're making it with Islay-peated barley, then I think it makes sense to mentally lump Ledaig in with the Islay boys. Ha!

Add this to the list of reasons to consider Ledaig to be the "early Ardbeg of today." (Isn't that one of Serge's frequent quips lately?)

@MadSingleMalt yes although Ledaig is made on Mull you could technically clump it with the Islay Malts due to the origins of its malt. But if you consider the diversity of the pay profile of the true Islay Malts - so much more is involved than just the source of the peat: fermentation length, still shape, and of course where the cuts are made. And then there is Tobermory distilleries assertion that the peaty water source they use contributes to the peat flavour profile. I'll still think of Ledaig as Island although your probably technically correct. Just further delineation of the whisky regions concept.

dp

@Hewie @MadSingleMalt - Just to chip in a question: Do the Port Ellen Maltings source barley exclusively from Islay? I'm guessing not, so ...

And, Hewie, to add to your list; location of maturation is going to make a big difference on the final product as well, I'd reckon.

@Robert99 - I'd have to say Ledaig, Talisker and Springbank/Longrow.

I wasn't a huge fan of the Benriach Curiositas and I've not tried that many non-Islay peated whiskys to be fair, but do have a Benromach Peat Smoke waiting to be popped!

@RianC, I have no authoritative info, and yet I'd be willing to bet my life savings that the Port Ellen Maltings does not source all their barley from Islay. I doubt they even source it all from Scotland. I'm sure there's not enough grown on the island.

And besides, why would Bruichladdich and Kilchoman have special "Scottish Barley" and "100% Islay" versions unless most Islay whiskies were made from who-knows-whence barley?

Does maturation location really matter all that much?

On a macro level, sure. Scotland is different from Kentucky is different from India.

But on a micro level? Is Islay all that different from, say, the Glasgow area? Caol Ila is tankered off for maturation on the mainland, and it's still "Islay" whisky.

@Hewie, are you saying that there's some commonalities among the Islay distilleries' "fermentation length, still shape, and where the cuts are made"?

@MadSingleMalt - Totally agree about the barley and I thought the same about Bruichladdich etc

On location though, I reckon it plays a significant part in the finished product. You'd gain little, if any, salty notes maturing inland for example. Would Springbank be Springbank if it was matured in a warehouse in Glasgow?

That being said, I'm sure many Islay distilleries send casks to the mainland; for at least part of their life in a barrel.

@RianC, I usually think the romance of the maturation location is just that. But then you'll hear the Springbank guys—whom I respect—talk about how their stuff gets saltier over the years that it matures there in Campbeltown, so I supposed I shouldn't completely write off that notion.

But as one guy on a different whisky site often quips, if barrels really took on the flavors of the air around them, then why don't all the ones from the warehouses along the highway outside Glasgow taste like gasoline fumes?

@MadSingleMalt "are you saying that there's some commonalities among the Islay distilleries' "fermentation length, still shape, and where the cuts are made"?
No - the opposite. Despite their same geographic location and the source of their peated malt the differences in their peat profiles is due to these other factors. Yet we still differentiate them (as a group) from other peated malts.

@Hewie, I see what you're saying now—thanks. So...

The Islay distilleries are just a bunch of heterogeneous production processes that just happen to be on the same island. Their (largely) common source of peat is the main thing that unites them. And even the peat source is a mixed bag—see Octomore.

I'm totally on board with that notion.

"Regions" in scotch are meaningless. Styles, sure, but not regions. Islay is the only one that almost means something, and that's just due to the briny Islay peat—but anyone can source that same peat and make the same style of whisky elsewhere. See Ledaig. See Connemara. (Maybe even "See Amrut"? I don't know where their peated malt comes from.)

@MadSingleMalt Yeah I think we're pretty much on the same page with all that. In world of wine they go on about terrior but I think in terms of whisky there are many more significant variables that come into play. I still love the notion that the type and location of the maturation warehouses impart characteristics into the whisky. That is one reason I struggle to get onboard with Caol Ila and them transporting the whisky to the mainland in tankers - it messes with my romanticism. But as mentioned I think all the other variables in the process have a much greater effect. Therefore I think each distilleries product is pretty much stand alone and unique regardless of where they are produced.

I believe Bruichladdich sources most if not all their malt from Bairds of Inverness rather than Port Ellen. In the case of their region specific barley, they ship the barley to Bairds for malting and then it goes back to Islay.

@MadSingleMalt I think even McCarthy's (from Oregon) use barley malted in Inverness (Bairds?) and peated to a 40+ ppm. They are said to do an Islay style. So I agree that style means more than region(s). But, at the same time, with the exception of Amrut CS peated, all non-Islay whiskies mentioned are from Scotland, nothing from Japan, France, Ireland, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, etc.

@MadSingleMalt Yeah, I agree. I wish they'd release something from Longrow along the lines of a Springbank 12 CS....Longrow 12 CS?!

@Nozinan They are both supposedly the same exact product at different dilution levels. I think that in the IP bottling, everything else is just so much more pronounced. Diluting it with water little by little slowly brings it back to the standard 10yr bottling's profile in my experience.

@KRB80 It may have been a batch effect, but I got 2 different whiskies. My understanding is that the cask management is a little different between the Ben 10 and the Ben 10 57%.

Talisker 10 and 57N for me. Love me some Talisker. Feel like this is the default answer though.

Birnie Moss, but the older "long tall bottle". Since it was taken over by Benriach, a few years ago, the quality has gone down drastically.

Thats great to make a little variation in peat level. I have enjoyed the Big Peat but have not bought a bottle. I prefered the silky Benromach Peated and its moderate depth. Although there is a lot more refined editions to enumerate, the Glendronach Peated is a good entry level dram.