Sweet like Wine: Love Your Dimples Even More-Chapter 97 - 56: Peated Whiskey

Peaty whiskey has become popular worldwide with the rise of single malt whiskey.

Before this, only locals from Islay held a special fondness for peat.

Peaty whiskey is somewhat like civet coffee.

Before gaining popularity among European aristocrats, "civet coffee," purely due to the fermentation through the civet’s digestive tract, was enough to deter coffee enthusiasts.

In fact, not to mention the "ultra-premium ultra-classy" civet coffee, even offering a standard cup of black coffee to someone who’s never tasted coffee would surely make them frown due to its bitterness.

There are probably few people who fall in love with the bitter taste of espresso without milk and sugar at first sip.

But once they do fall in love, they’ll find coffee with milk and sugar bland and flavorless.

The peat taste in whiskey, to put it simply, is the smoke flavor.

The so-called peaty whiskey is not made by directly adding peat to the whiskey, but rather by using smoke produced by burning peat during the malting process to dry the malt. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The intensity of the peat flavor depends on the duration of smoking and the amount of peat used during smoking.

Smoke flavoring is a very common food processing technique.

Peaty whiskey may not be widely tasted, but foods like smoked salmon are definitely not rare.

However, when smoking foods, fruitwood is usually used, whereas whiskey smoking uses peat.

Whiskeys use peat that is local to their production area.

Peat varies by location, even on Islay, each distillery’s peat has slight differences.

Even within the same distillery, two identical pieces of peat cannot be found.

Enthusiastic fans of peaty whiskey often measure the smokiness by phenol content.

The most peaty whiskey—Brookladdie Peat Monster—has a phenol content of 169PPM, making it feel like having peat directly in one’s mouth, which is absolutely not acceptable to the average peaty whiskey enthusiast.

This is not even the Peat Monster most peat lovers have heard of.

The Peat Monster from Compasstox, with a phenol content of 30PPM, is a more widely known peaty monster whiskey.

Judging by the phenol content, it’s known to be five times lesser than the most intense peat.

But calling it a monster already indicates it’s still not a whiskey the average person can accept.

Those who believe that the heavier the peat in a peaty whiskey, the better it is, are merely showcasing a minority’s "peculiar taste."

Just like coffee appreciation where drinking the world’s most bitter coffee defines a connoisseur’s "peculiar taste."

Existence certainly has its rationality, but existing doesn’t mean it’s acceptable to the majority.

Widely favored peaty whiskeys, like Ardmore, have a phenol content of only 12PPM.

Even more so, whiskeys like Glenlivet have driven the phenol content to below 2PPM.

Summer Fairmont’s whiskey this time, assessed by Sean Lowell, has a phenol content similar to Bowmore whiskey, ranging between 25~30PPM.

This level of smokiness is the favorite of the last master distiller of the Brunschwig Family, Mr. Westwood Brunswick.

Brunschwig Distillery didn’t catch a good period.

The global popularity of peaty whiskey, which Islay locals cherish, occurred after Brunschwig Distillery closed down.

Before gaining admiration from whiskey connoisseurs worldwide, peat’s effect was merely to cover everything, making the whiskey’s taste monotonous with extremely coarse texture.

Of course, we are talking about heavily peated whiskey here.

Those lightly smoked, or blended like Highland Knight, combining moderately smoked malt with unsmoked malt in a 1:4 ratio before brewing, definitely create a final product that most whiskey lovers will savor.

Peaty whiskey is the most terroir-rich whiskey.

In places where others couldn’t appreciate peat and single malt yet, many on Islay were already drinking nothing but single malt.

That’s why, as malt and peat started gaining popularity, Islay subtly began to feel like the "center of Scotland whiskey."

The most magical thing is that Islay’s terroir can assimilate everyone who steps onto the island.

Those who once couldn’t understand, when you step onto the wild land of Islay and meet the rushing sea wind, you naturally begin to appreciate this flavor.