Community Favorites: Peated Single Malts

One of a just a handful of distilleries that still floor malts barley, they also must hand cut all the peat used to dry and smoke the barley. As their volume is simply too great to just use what they malt at the distillery, they also purchase peated barley from up the road at Port Ellen and some from the mainland.

Shudder to think that Highland Park 18 has only been with us since 1997. What were we drinking instead? With the highest of accolades awarded in the whisky world under their belt, one wonders what is their secret to success. The selection and creation of the casks has to be part of the recipe. Using both European and American oak, casks are built to their specifications and sent off to Jerez to be filled with Oloroso Sherry. Three years later, they get them back and the journey begins.

The middle child of the standard age specific Caol Ila family is the 18 year old. The 18 year is bottled at the brand's regular 43% ABV. That much time in the barrel is noted for diminishing the whisky's smoke, while a mixture of refill casks were used so as to play down the impact of the wood.

Caol Ila, pronounced as “Cull Ee-la” is a small Islay distillery founded in 1846 nestled in a hidden cove near Port Askaig overlooking the strait between Islay and Jura. Caol Ila is readily known as one of the lighter, more nuanced and delicate of the Islay single malts with the 12 year as their entry level offering originally debuting in the summer of 2002. It is bottled at a modest 86 proof.

The whiskies used to compose the 18 year have spent their time exclusively in either ex-Bourbon barrels or in ex-Sherry casks. They are then blended together to produce this treasure. One note doesn't outshine the other, but rather it is a marvelous symphony of aromas and flavors.

Bowmore Tempest is released in batches and is bottled at cask strength. There have been five different batches that have been released with the abv hovering between 55-56%. The whisky is aged in 1st fill bourbon barrels for 10 years in their No. 1 vault. Tempest has been replaced with Dorus Mor, but there are Tempest bottles still waiting to be found.

Bowmore is Islay's oldest distillery going back to 1779. Legend is their youngest whisky produced with no age statement listed. Aged in predominantly American casks, this is an agreeable whisky to explore as an introduction to what Scotch has to offer.

Ardmore had, up until very recently, been utilized as a primary malt for Teacher's blended whiskies. Their malt is peated at about a 15 ppm level with peat from the mainland rather than the islands. This Traditional Cask bottling is aged for 6-13 years in American oak before being transferred to smaller Quarter Casks to finish the aging process for another year.

First launched in 2003, Ardbeg Uigeadail [Oog-a-dal] is a marriage of some young and some very old oloroso sherry aged single malt along with Ardbeg aged in ex-bourbon barrels. The name Uigeadail means "a dark, mysterious place." Fun to say and even more fun to drink. It is also the name of the loch from which Ardbeg gets its water. Bottled at cask strength with no age statement.

This whiskey certainly disproves the notion that all Irish Whiskeys are the same. Bringing back older styles of Irish Whiskey production, this is double distilled and uses peated malted barley. It then gets to spend its life in ex-bourbon barrels for 12 years.