Where next for peat?
Peaty whisky has been enjoying a long spell in the limelight.But are there new territories to explore? Ian Wisniewski reports
Being called names doesnât bother me, and Iâm sure the rest of the gang are fine about it too. After all, âpeat freakâ or âpeat headâ only indicates a passion for peated malts, and thereâs nothing derogatory about that.
As an ultimate style, peated malts have an integral sense of challenge (can you handle it?), but then they also offer a distinctive, and bountiful reward.
Having acquired cult status, peated malts have also created a significant new dynamic within the category. Traditionally, reaching malt-hood meant drinking blended Scotch first, before experimenting with elegant, fruity malts, and possibly graduating to peaty, smoky styles.
However, a growing crowd is now bypassing blends and reaching straight for malts, which are seen as âthe real deal.â Moreover, even some straight-to-malt drinkers are making their debut with peaty, smoky malts.
âPeople went from blends to âGlen Safe,â which I think was more to do with availability. Now some consumers are going straight into peated malts,â confirms Highland Parkâs Jason Craig.
In fact, thereâs so much traffic in this direction that peated malts represent around 50 per cent of the premium malt sector.
âAs peated malts were to an extent discovered by consumers, theyâve proved that producers who thought peated malts wouldnât sell were shortsighted. Sometimes peated malts are all consumers want to know about,â says Nick Morgan of Classic Malts.
A growing fan club has also gone way b.....
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By Ian Wisniewski
Section : Whisky production
Page number : 22
