Hopefully this is a harbinger of Nordic whiskies to come.īruichladdich has stood out among its Islay counterparts since the distillery was reopened in 2001 under iconoclastic distiller Jim McEwen (today it’s run by his successor, Adam Hannett). While it shares some of the flavor profiles of Scotch whisky, it’s completely distinctive at the same time. On the palate, Stauning Smoke’s sweet creaminess and slightly tart lemony flavor are balanced by sharp, dry woody notes. It’s even a tad floral, courtesy of the heather that’s also used to smoke the grains. Unlike the heavy maritime notes of Islay peat, the smoky aromas here, while still dominant, are gentler by comparison, thanks to the mosses and shrubs that make up Danish peat. There’s terroir in peat-since it’s composed of partially decomposed vegetation, what grows in the area affects the aroma and the flavor of the peat smoke. Stauning Smoke uses ingredients sourced exclusively from within a few miles of the distillery and that includes the peat used to malt the barley. But age and distilling techniques all have an effect on how a whisky actually tastes, no matter how peaty it looks in a lab.ĭenmark isn’t known for its whisky, but Stauning, founded in 2009, has made a splash among aficionados worldwide. The most heavily peated whisky ever recorded, Bruichladdich’s Octomore 8.3, released in 2017, measured a completely bonkers 309 ppm. A lightly peated malt can have 10 to 15 ppm (phenol parts per million) while one that’s heavily peated can have about 40 to 60. ![]() While taste is subjective, there is a way to objectively measure peat in whisky, and that’s by measuring the phenol, the chemical that gives a whisky its characteristic smoky notes. And in recent decades, as single malt mania took hold and whiskyphiles started searching out bolder and more distinctive whiskies, the smoky stuff-the more intense the better-gained a rabid cult following that makes brands like Bruichladdich, Lagavulin and Ardbeg some of the most desirable of all Scotches. In the years after World War II, most Scottish distilleries switched over to other, cleaner fuel sources, but a few kept up the peaty tradition. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the fuel used for malting was usually peat, which burns like coal and is abundant throughout Scotland. Peat makes its entrance at the very beginning of the whisky-making process, before distillation, when barley is roasted, or malted, to stop the seeds from sprouting fully. ![]() This 40-Year-Old Delivers a More Nuanced Sherry-Cask Single Malt. Netflix’s First Pop-up Restaurant Will Serve Food From Its Hit Cooking Shows An 800-Year-Old French Estate Founded by Knights Debuts Its First Organic Wine
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