mitchshrader
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2006
- Messages
- 146
Peated scotch has a lot of quality and regional variations, and nobody wants to admit it, but peat isn't what it used to be.
Like most everything else in the last couple of generations, distillery methods have changed. measured parts per million, double soaking the grist, reworking the backwash, all designed to increase the amount of peat in scotch, cause peat is a very scant resource where it's needed. there's oodles in canada and russia, who don't use it, and sooner or later it'll be imported to scotland, and no doubt the whisky will improve.
the problem is, peat isn't all the same. new peat is rotted mosses and flowers and bushes and little frogs and seaweed and bracken and whatever grows around it and blows in. medium peat is aged brown woody flavorful interesting smoky and complex, and the deep peat, the black stuff, might as well be soft coal, its black and tarry and bitter and NOT what you want good booze to taste like.
well. scotland has plenty of new peat, and black peat, and the brown peat's about gone. we drank it.
SO. the taste of most scotch has, naturally, changed. it used to be, the barley was a bit closer grown, and more organic..at least in great part. it used to be the peat was a better grade, and used less stingily.. and reworked less. . the barley was often malted and dried (over said peat) locally, and with variations in batch from year to year, thus making especially 'good' years when everything came together.
That's just not going to happen any more, the systems are less dependent on any one source, and don't work like that.
Malts are made to order, and delivered in trucks, for the most part, and the particular quality or brand of barley, or which farmer cut the peat, just isn't considered in the same way.
The average quality of whisky I suspect has improved, and the average TASTE hasn't at all. There've been tons of attempts to work with modern methods and produce 'great' liquour, and in fact a few successes. This doesn't mean young booze is bad, or there'll be no great vintage whisky in the future.
But certain particular factors have changed, and it'd take an obsessive stillman to gather the necessary elements today to make a true classic style malt.
One of the best attempts at such, is the Ardbeg 10. That is very much a distillery to watch, the next decade, as some of their older releases hit the market.
Lagavulin has maintained very *nearly* the old flavor profile, iodine and tar and salty smoke..
It's a cruel truth that Scotch Whisky has been doomed by it's popularity. The shortage of sherry casks has lowered the standard considerably on one side.. the dwindling supply of peat has forced rationing and changes in methods on the smoky Islay side.. the glut of single malt fans worldwide has drasticly increased the price of anything at all, good or not, over 20 years old.. allowing many ordinary casks to be sold as 'supreme'..
The combination of younger and more expensive and less tasty all boils down to 'less value'.. dilution of quality until the market refuses to accept any more..
So don't expect it's all good. Don't settle for mediocre, there's LOTS of that. Ardbeg, Laphroaig, Lagavulin, Highland Park, Bowmore, Bruichladdich, all are good names to start with, but get personal recommendations.. If you like GOOD peated malt, you'll need to Chase it.
Like most everything else in the last couple of generations, distillery methods have changed. measured parts per million, double soaking the grist, reworking the backwash, all designed to increase the amount of peat in scotch, cause peat is a very scant resource where it's needed. there's oodles in canada and russia, who don't use it, and sooner or later it'll be imported to scotland, and no doubt the whisky will improve.
the problem is, peat isn't all the same. new peat is rotted mosses and flowers and bushes and little frogs and seaweed and bracken and whatever grows around it and blows in. medium peat is aged brown woody flavorful interesting smoky and complex, and the deep peat, the black stuff, might as well be soft coal, its black and tarry and bitter and NOT what you want good booze to taste like.
well. scotland has plenty of new peat, and black peat, and the brown peat's about gone. we drank it.
SO. the taste of most scotch has, naturally, changed. it used to be, the barley was a bit closer grown, and more organic..at least in great part. it used to be the peat was a better grade, and used less stingily.. and reworked less. . the barley was often malted and dried (over said peat) locally, and with variations in batch from year to year, thus making especially 'good' years when everything came together.
That's just not going to happen any more, the systems are less dependent on any one source, and don't work like that.
Malts are made to order, and delivered in trucks, for the most part, and the particular quality or brand of barley, or which farmer cut the peat, just isn't considered in the same way.
The average quality of whisky I suspect has improved, and the average TASTE hasn't at all. There've been tons of attempts to work with modern methods and produce 'great' liquour, and in fact a few successes. This doesn't mean young booze is bad, or there'll be no great vintage whisky in the future.
But certain particular factors have changed, and it'd take an obsessive stillman to gather the necessary elements today to make a true classic style malt.
One of the best attempts at such, is the Ardbeg 10. That is very much a distillery to watch, the next decade, as some of their older releases hit the market.
Lagavulin has maintained very *nearly* the old flavor profile, iodine and tar and salty smoke..
It's a cruel truth that Scotch Whisky has been doomed by it's popularity. The shortage of sherry casks has lowered the standard considerably on one side.. the dwindling supply of peat has forced rationing and changes in methods on the smoky Islay side.. the glut of single malt fans worldwide has drasticly increased the price of anything at all, good or not, over 20 years old.. allowing many ordinary casks to be sold as 'supreme'..
The combination of younger and more expensive and less tasty all boils down to 'less value'.. dilution of quality until the market refuses to accept any more..
So don't expect it's all good. Don't settle for mediocre, there's LOTS of that. Ardbeg, Laphroaig, Lagavulin, Highland Park, Bowmore, Bruichladdich, all are good names to start with, but get personal recommendations.. If you like GOOD peated malt, you'll need to Chase it.