Greetings everyone! Sorry for the huge delay, I've been sick as
all hell this last couple of weeks and used the time whilst sick to study, so
all was not lost. However, as I've been unable to enjoy any of my delicious
malty whisky goodness I've been unable to do any reviews. Never fear, I'm back
with a ripper!
This one is
specifically for a buddy of mine from work. He says IS-LAY, I say EYE-LA.
Tomay-toe, Tomar-toe. Whatever the way you pronounce it, Islay is a little
island off the west coast of Scotland. They have a specific type of Peat there,
and they are usually very smoky whiskies as they use the peat smoke to dry the malted
barley in large kilns (for those of you that didn't know the way they get the
flavour).
Peated whisky has
a pungent odour and taste that at first hits you like burnt rubber. I was on a
quest when I started my whisky journey to find out what possesses people to
drink burnt rubber in a glass! Honestly, are you mad? I stuck with it, however,
so that I started to develop the appreciation and taste for the Islay style
Malts. Any of you out in whisky land that find peated whisky to be stinky,
gross, burnt, plasticy, off, putrid, detritus, muddy, firey, and thinking that
they used old white 'dog-logs' to dry their barley instead of a great natural
resource of old compressed organic matter, Please....Stick with it, and work
your way up to the heavily peated stuff. Here's a map of Islay to get started
On the scale of
peated whisky by me, I'd say Johnny Walker green label which whilst peaty, is
still quite mild. Next, onto Talisker which is more peated, but with a less
intense less medicinal type of peat that is from the Isle of Skye, not Islay.
Great stuff that is like a gateway drug to peaty goodness. (Talisker was
introduced to me from another great work colleague who also is a Karate
Blackbelt, and keeps a gimp. haha) Then onto the Mid-range Peated Islay,
Bowmore 10 year old. It's a great whisky that can be had usually for $50 which
I think for a single malt, especially something as amazingly crafted as
Bowmore, is a steal! Finally, the Southern Islay crew of Laphroaig, Lagavulin,
Port Ellen and Ardbeg. Some of the biggest names in whisky, which also have a
huge cult following, and for a good reason. In an age where everyone is
'unique' and apparently all so 'different' it's refreshing to know that there
are still some people with the heart and passion on a small island half way
around the world that make whisky the way it was back then, which happens to be
the most unique whisky in the world today. Still. I guess the key to uniqueness
is to actually NOT change. Who'da thought?
This leads me on
to my next rant, which annoys me. I like to drink whisky, and collect a few. It
does, however, annoy the bejesus out of me that certain whisky is so hard to
come by.... and at the top of that list is an Original Port Ellen. For
those who do not know, Port Ellen still has a Malting’s, which they supply a
lot of other Islay distilleries with, but they were a working distillery from
1820-1983. 163 bloody years. That's a good trot in anyone's book. Prices for an
original Port Ellen today are average price of about 500 pounds British. I'll
probably one day have one, but unfortunately I've not been lucky enough to
secure even a taster yet. I'll try my best to sort one.
Then, out of left
field comes Big Peat! BOOM! Ardbeg, Caol-Ila, Bowmore and...Gulp.....PORT
ELLEN! After the previous paragraph I bet you'd think its a few hundred
dollars/pounds. It's in fact, a Blended Malt (used to be called vatted, but that’s
a whinge for another day.) no grain whisky added, for $60 odd Australian. How's
that for value?
It's an awesome
bottling from Douglas Laing, an Independent bottler. What a great looking tin
and bottle. It makes you smile, thinking of a salty sea breeze with a camp
fire, crappy weather and winter. Perfect for an Islay Whisky! YES! Have a look
and tell me it doesn't at least make you look at the label for a second. What
Macallan is to refinement, Big Peat is to bold awesomeness.
So, how’s it go?
Bloody fantastic. That's how!
Firstly, it's a
non-chill filtered, non-coloured 46% abv whisky, and having Caol Ila in it
makes it quite oily which I personally adore. It's like a whisky police man
shot a velvety smoke bomb into a glass of sweet syrup. Seriously! It has a
great consistency, leaves medium size legs, and some nice fat oily tear drops.
The colour is almost like a light chardonnay pale straw colour, which turns
milky with the addition of a drop of water.
Nose: BANG. Peat
in the face. A really earthy, heavily medicinal peat that also has a sweetness
to it almost like new make spirit. The sweet ethanol smell as it just comes off
the still, but not at all harsh on the nose. I almost get a feint whiff of fisherman’s
friend style lolly in it.
Palate: The
instant peat is huge, but doesn't overpower the other subtle flavours. A
nice sweet peaty whisky, which is how I like the peated whisky. Peat and sweet.
It's also got a little bitterness (not at all bad) and a slight sour kick as
well, but then fades out into a mandarin like sweetness that you get when you
can smell when someone in the room opens a fresh mandarin. Not what I was
expecting from an Islay! Awesome!
Finish is huge and
changes constantly, and the whole whisky is pretty damn impressive, especially
for 60 bucks. It's probably the best value for money Islay malt out there due
to the rarity of the Port Ellen, and that it's cheaper than most of the other
malts in the blend. Buy one.
It's complex, and
changes from glass to glass, and is perfect on a horrible rainy cold night like
tonight here in Canberra.
My rating for Big
Peat given all of the above? KILLER! That's all.... KILLER.
In the words of
the Russian master of weaponry Dmitri.... 'Don't Be Beech!'
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