Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Malt Mission 2011 #396


Big Peat
Islay Blended Malt Whisky

46% abv
£34
$85 (USD)

Welcome to March! I haven't seen you since 2010. I have to get back on the horse and gallop towards the 400 landmark!

I am sure by now you have already met or read about Big Peat. Brought to you buy the good people at Douglas Laing & Co., he was released back in September 2009 and has since received word-of-mouth acclaim and awards from Whisky Magazine (World Whisky Awards) for Best Blended Malt Scotch Whisky, Best Peated Malt Whisky(Daily Dram) 2009 by the Malt Maniacs, and Jim Murray called it Best Vatted Malt in his 2011 Whisky Bible.

Apparently, Fred Douglas Laing senior loved Port Ellen and thus invested heavily in casks from the now shuttered distillery decades ago. This legacy has left an emotional attachment to this distillery for his offspring with every nose of a Port Ellen likely reminding them of their father's goodnight kisses.

The vatting includes several anonymous malts but Bowmore, Ardbeg, Caol Ila, and the increasingly rare Port Ellen are all named in the mix with the youngest whisky coming in at 5 years old, the oldest at least 26.

Thanks to Kirsty and Fred for the sample and I will see you for a dram this weekend at WhiskyLIVE London. For other Douglas Laing bottlings enjoyed on the Malt Mission dig deep into this whisky blog's past.

TASTING NOTES:

Tarry, with some toffee, candied lemon, raw salmon, and a generally sweet core.

Salty and sweet, even more tarry than the nose suggested, earthy, but with only gentle smokiness wrapped in toffee and orange.

SUMMARY:

Extremely enjoyable drop that is at once industrial and sooty but equally confectionary with sweetness, creating a very well balanced whisky in a very 21st century package.

For other opions, JSMWS tasted Big Peat HERE, Whisky For Everyone HERE, Whisky Boys HERE, and Dramming share some tasting notes. In the medium of moving pictures, Ralfy shares his thoughts HERE and Dickie P and Fred Laing share a few HERE.

Malt Mission #395

Malt Mission HOME

5 comments:

Gal Granov said...

It's indeed a lovely vatting and at a good price. I have a wee bottle which i visit often ;)

nice reading a post after so long, what have you been up to mate?

Gal, Israel.

markP said...

more more more! We miss you when you're gone

Matthew said...

Sounds great! I hope it makes it to Ontario someday...

Joshua said...

Welcome back, brotha man and thank you for the shout out.

Big Peat is a yum of a dram. I wish I had me a little right now...

I wonder what you'll review for MM400??

Dr. Whisky said...

Thanks, all.

Gal, it's good to be "back"
But still busy.

What have I been up to?
Moving continents, finding a home, being a daddy, working full time in a global role, etc.
Actually the biggest challenge to regular posting is that my work laptop, where I spend most of my time, creates posts full of bugs and errors and (obviously) Dr Whisky is a pretty lo-fi operation.