Big Peat 10 – The birthday boy..

Douglas Laing

Established In 1948, this Glasgow based Independent bottler is today one of the leading bottlers of whisky in the world.

Douglas Laing is well known for bottling single casks of malt whisky and single grain but they also have an impressive range of blended whiskies including the Remarkable Malts range which includes the extremely popular Big Peat, Scallywag and Timorous Beastie as well as The Epicurean, The Gauldrons and Rock Oyster..

Also in the Douglas Laing portfolio are the Old Particular single cask bottlings, the Xtra old Particular single cask and Provenance range of single casks..

These proudly sit aside other expressions like Single Minded, Double Barrel, Premier Barrel and King of Scots blended whisky..

Big Peat

Big Peat was launched in 2009 and was the first expression in the Remarkable Malts series, boasting an impressive line up of Islay whiskies that include Caol Ila, Bowmore, Ardbeg and some unknown distillery named Port Ellen or something like that..

Big Peat is known for the big peaty, smoky influence of the Islay island and has over the years offered up a few different alternative options like the yearly Christmas edition which is bottled at a higher Abv..

Big Peat is 10

Today’s review concentrates on the birthday boy who is celebrating its 10th year, proudly boasting  a 10 year old age statement unlike the general release which is a no age statement, still bottled at the 46% Abv and of course carrying the Non chill filtered and natural colour statements that Douglas Laing insist upon with all the releases..

Distillery.. Multiple

Region.. Islay

Age..10 years

Abv.. 46%

Bottler.. Douglas Laing

This is NCF and Naturally Coloured

Nose.. Soft smoke rises with a nice sweetness and sea spray aroma.. As it opens there is a more earthy aroma that mixes well with a honey, fresh pear, citrus peel and tobacco smoke note..

Palate.. The peat notes are more pronounced here with a typical ashtray note.. That damp smouldering wood note you get when standing next to a dying bonfire is dominant with hints of salty sea spray, burnt toffee, Manuka honey that brings back that earthy note, digestive biscuits and a soft chocolate note.

Finish.. Lingering smoke.

Thoughts.. This screams of Islay and there is no disguising that fact but then that’s the whole point of this dram, this isn’t too overpowering and actually becomes a very enjoyable dram due to that fact.. I really expected a massive kick to the chops from that peat but I’m happily surprised and overjoyed to say this is extremely balanced in order to allow some of the finer notes to show up to the party and not just rely on the typical dominance of the smoke.

The fact that this also boasts that a drop or two of Port Ellen makes it into this blend of Islay Malts is incredible as the stocks must be getting rather tight these days..

This Limited edition won’t be around for long and anybody looking for a rather good blend of Islay Malts shouldn’t look past this one..

With thanks to Douglas Laing for the official review sample..

Happy Birthday Big Peat..