The Noble Dram | Scotch for Starters: Peat (Season 2 | Ep. 16)

What exactly is peat, and why does it make some Scotch whiskies taste like a campfire by the sea?

In this episode of Scotch for Starters, Gavin and Aaron tackle one of the most misunderstood and most polarizing topics in Scotch whisky. Whether you're peat-curious or a lifelong smoke lover, we'll explain what peat is, how it's used during whisky production, why it creates such unique flavors, and why not all peated Scotch tastes the same.

To bring the lesson to life, we're pouring two incredible drams:
 🥃 Longrow Peated (Campbeltown)
 🥃 Caol Ila 12 Year Old (Islay)

You'll discover why these two heavily peated whiskies couldn't be more different, despite sharing similar smoky roots.

Whether you're taking your very first sip of peated Scotch or looking to deepen your whisky knowledge, this episode will help you appreciate the history, science, and artistry behind one of Scotland's most iconic flavors.

If you've ever said, "Scotch tastes too smoky," this episode is for you.

🥃 What's your favorite peated Scotch?
 Let us know in the comments! Are you Team Islay, Team Campbeltown, or somewhere in between?

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About Scotch for Starters
Scotch for Starters is The Noble Dram's educational series designed to make Scotch whisky approachable, entertaining, and easy to understand, one dram at a time.

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Transcript

Aaron 0:00

Riddle me this. Pete and Repeat sitting on a fence. Pete falls off. Who's left? Uh repeat? Okay. Pete and Repeat are sitting on a fence. Pete falls off.

Gavin 0:14

Who's left? For Pete's sake, that's not what I meant when I said, let's talk about Pete.

Aaron 0:51

Welcome everybody to this week's episode of the Double Dram. Gavin and Aaron here for the third part of our Scotch for Starters series. Tonight, yeah, tonight we go big, bold, and smoky. We're talking peat. So we're gonna cover what is Pete, how is it used, why does it make whiskey taste better, all of those wonderful things.

Gavin 1:19

I like how you snuck that in there.

Aaron 1:20

But first, my hands are empty. Gavin, would you be so kind as to pour us a delicious peated scotch?

Gavin 1:33

Yes, I would love to pour you a peated scotch. Uh this bottle hails from the great region of Campbelltown in Scotland. Um this distillery is not actually Long Row Distillery. It is Springbank distillery. So if you know much about Scotch, maybe you don't, because this is again Scotch for starters.

Aaron 2:09

Maybe you think you know a lot about Scotch and you don't.

Gavin 2:11

Maybe maybe we don't know a lot about Scotch wools. I was gonna say, I think I fall into that. We're gonna figure this out together because that's what we do.

Aaron 2:18

And what I've learned about whiskey is more than some people know, but way less than other people know. Yes.

Gavin 2:24

They're agreed, and I think that's a general rule for everything in life. Like, yeah, you could think that you're really good at parenting, and then you see another parent, you're like, oh man, I like them.

Aaron 2:37

That's why we used to watch Jerry Springer. It made you feel better about yourself. There you go. There you go. We're gonna find a page to write some notes on.

Gavin 2:44

All right, so this, again, produced by the legendary Spring Bank Distillery. This is double distilled, unlike the standard Spring Bank, which is two and a half times distilled. Wait, how do you half distill some? How do you half anything? Um, I've been half-assing most of my life. So I'm pretty good at it. Exactly. And so Spring Bank.

Aaron 3:10

That's insulting something. I'm just gonna say this. I aside from where Gavin feels about you, Springbank, I love you.

Gavin 3:17

I didn't say half-ass things. No, I just said you said that's all they do. I heard you. I heard you. Uh, you know, it is what it is. Uh, first introduced uh in let me get this right, 1973, this expression.

Aaron 3:32

Okay, so but this is long row what? Is there a name for this specific release? I should have said that.

Gavin 3:39

No, I it's fair.

Aaron 3:40

It is excited.

Gavin 3:41

You got peed on the brain. Yes. This is the peated. Oh, okay, that makes sense. Long row peated Campbell Town single malt scotch.

Aaron 3:50

And that's that's one of their standard releases, if I'm not mistaken. Yes. Okay.

Gavin 3:54

For long row. Uh there's no age statement, but there are rumors out there that the juice in the bottle is somewhere right around six to eight years. The internet sleuthing told me this. Well, I don't I don't know for sure. So if you do know, let us know. Uh, it is matured in expurbon and X sherry casks. Uh we are clocking in right at 46% ABV to do the math.

Aaron 4:27

92 proof. Oh, I thought you were gonna have me do the math. I was over here frantically counting my toes.

Gavin 4:35

Um with Pete, we will talk a little about a little bit about this later, but there's also a different metric that Pete Scotches use, and that is the parts per million scale.

Aaron 4:51

Yeah, I think my hopes is that before the end of the episode, you at home will know what parts per million, um, what that is in reference to. You'll understand what that means relative to other scales.

Gavin 5:05

So but I will tell you stay tuned.

Aaron 5:07

I will tell you this is right around 50 parts per million as a new metric that we're introducing to pencil this in 50 ppm to be determined what the hell that means.

Gavin 5:22

Yes, exactly. I mean, some people may not know what ABV means, so let's just be fair about that.

Aaron 5:28

Okay, alcohol by volume. Yes, and if you turn the volume up, it sounds louder. Yes, those are both true facts, very, very scientific, completely and utterly unrelated, but both true facts.

Gavin 5:44

Uh that's how we live here.

Aaron 5:45

I was having I was having dinner with my wife last night, and I said something that was blatantly true. And she says, What does that have to do with anything? Right? I just simply said, I'm not wrong. And she said she sat across the table from me. She said, just this dumbstruck look, she's like, I can't argue with him. He was right. It just makes no sense in the conversation why he would bring this up. Yeah, and I won. I won. I set my fork down and got up and walked away from the table. It never happened before. It was awesome. Instead, if a mic drop, a fork drop. I went and told other tables at the restaurant. You'll never believe what just happened to me.

Gavin 6:20

And they're like, a legend. This guy's a legend. Oh. Uh, so that's a little bit about this specific bottle. Uh, you want me to go in a little bit of Springbank-ish?

Aaron 6:32

Yeah, I think so. Let's at least explain why you said this is a bottle of long row that is made at Springbank. Okay. Because in Scotland, those the distiller and the brand are not necessarily the same thing. I I shouldn't say this in Scotland. This kind of occurs everywhere. That you can have a distillery that owns the name or the license to another brand. Quite often those used to be separate distilleries, but one closes and so then somebody else buys them in, right? Right. And I I believe that's what's happened here, if I'm not mistaken.

Gavin 7:10

So I think, I think. Excuse me. Sorry about that. I think that Long Row distillery closed down, and I believe Springbank bought the rights to the name, so now they have the full expression of Long Row. But I don't think it's the I don't know if the distillery is still surviving, if it's just the name.

Aaron 7:36

Yeah, I the way the way I've always heard the story is that at its heyday, Campbell Town had lots of distilleries. And then unfortunately, Prohibition really, really hurt that that economy. And so it went from dozens and dozens of distilleries in town to just a few. Um, ultimately all the way down to two at one point. Now they're now they're back up to three. But as part of that reduction, there were still a bunch of brands that people knew that the distilleries that remained kind of consolidated some of those labels, so to speak. Um, this has happened repeatedly through the bourbon world. Right? If you go back and look at bourbons, it's amazing to me how distilleries still have names of a brand that's now made at a different distillery. Right. That building, they now make a different brand. I mean, that that kind of, I won't say incestuous, but although somewhat incestuous, kind of uh uh monopolizing and consuming each other's labels and stuff like it, it happens on all sorts of products.

Gavin 8:45

I love uh when brands uh resurrect old labels and old names. I think that is very fun and unique. It's paying homage initially, not initially, but I would say just entirely. Um it's it's paying homage to a brand that may have been lost or fallen, right? So it's it's it's it's fun. Um kind of brings in a legacy that is no more or that people talk about, and now they get to kind of engage with it again, which is so fun.

Aaron 9:21

So um, all right. So I think I think it's important if we're going to have an episode about Pete, and it's for people who don't know a lot about Scotch, the first thing we should do, and I know this is a horrible cliche because you're not supposed to do this in presentation, but you should just start with the definition. Um, yeah, it's the worst way, but I don't know how better to explain. So if we're gonna talk about Pete, can you explain to everyone, perhaps myself included, what is Pete?

Gavin 9:53

All right, let's go. It's not the guy that works at the distillery. Uh no, it is not. Although we should have tried to find a Pete that works at the distillery. That would have been fun.

Aaron 10:02

I actually looked down through my list of like whiskey drinking buddies, and I didn't have a Pete. All right, we would have had a guest on for tonight's episode. We'd have Pete sitting here. I have no idea what's going on.

Gavin 10:13

I have an Uncle Pete. Um sorry, Uncle Pete. Sorry. Sorry, Uncle Pete, Uncle Uncle Pete. Uh so what Pete, what is Pete? Pete is essentially a decomposed vegetation that has been compressed over many years. Um, think of it as like grass, hay, um, all kinds of stuff that would just be out in a random field in Scotland or in the United States. I mean, it's just it's not grass clippings. Not grass clippings.

Aaron 10:45

Not too dissimilar from grass grass clippings.

Gavin 10:48

Right. I mean, think dinosaur bones and all those fun things, right? Oh but dinosaur bones. Is there dinosaur bones in peas? You could probably find dinosaur bones.

Aaron 10:56

I mean, think about think about that. Something it's you're tainting the taste of my whiskey now. I think there's dinosaur bones in there.

Gavin 11:03

Think about just random things that die out in the field. I mean, they're gonna be You're not selling this very into your peat bogs. So essentially it's just vegetation that has been compressed over years and millennium and all of those things. Right. And it just creates uh this muddy-ish kind of compressed uh earth. Uh something unique about peat, and we may get into it a little bit more in depth, is it's also location specific. So a I'll just tear this page right out of my book.

Aaron 11:40

Gavin's gonna tell you all about it.

Gavin 11:42

Pete bogs in say Isla uh versus Orkney versus Campbelltown or or any other location, they're gonna have different types of vegetation that grows.

Aaron 11:56

Yep, ultimately for sure. I kind of uh we talk about terroir and how grain grows, and that's the mineral content of the soil, like all of that same concept ultimately applies to peat. Um, all right, so that's peat. A peat. It tells you just nothing about how it gets into the glass. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I still think there's more to do before we get started. Um I'm a rabbit hole guy, right? Because I had this same question. I was like, well, how do you define Pete? So I went and started doing some digging online, and very similar to the. Did you dig some Pete? Almost verbatim, exactly how you described it, is exactly what Google said. Um, no, what I'm saying is Google probably called you and asked. That's what I'm saying. So I figured out. So I gotcha. It got me thinking, uh-huh. Okay, but how does peat actually form? Right? Like there are places you can go get peat, but everything said, well, it took hundreds of years, thousands of years for this peat to form. I was like, but how does it actually form? Like peat just didn't miraculously appear somewhere. So I started doing some digging. There are four primary, I won't say ingredients, but things that are necessary to create peat. Okay, so the first one, I'm gonna take a sip. The first one my palate. There's there's four things, so it's a lot of talking. All right, so first one is water. Peat typically forms in bogs or marshes, wetlands, stuff of that nature. And the reason is that the water actually displaces oxygen. So when your plant matter falls over and into the water, without oxygen, decomposition can't begin to occur, right? And so that plant matter actually lasts a lot longer and doesn't decay and just turn into dirt like it would anywhere else. All right. Number two, if you're gonna have grass fall over into water, you have to have grass, right? You have to have plant matter. Um commonly peats come from grasses, reeds, um, and moss. Right? You made a comment about different areas of the world having peat bogs that can vary pretty significantly as to what kind of plant matter is in the area that ultimately makes it into the bog. You also need a what they call a pickling environment. What that means is a highly acidic water. So what happens is there is a specific kind of moss. I don't know how Gavin does this, but every time he's like, you should research this. And then I look into it and I was like, that's a word I don't know how to pronounce. I think Gavin actually pre-researches, hits a word he doesn't know. He's like, that's a topic Aaron should look up.

Gavin 15:01

Yep.

Aaron 15:02

Um I'm gonna pronounce it sphagnum moss S-P-H-A-G-N-U-N. Sphagnum. Okay. If it's wrong, I apologize. I've said I'm not a chemist, I'm also not a botanist. Um, but one of the things that happens when that moss grows and when it dies, it releases a great deal of tannins and ultimately raises the acidity level of the water. That helps that plant material not decay in the water. Okay. Right? And then the fourth item is compaction, right? Peat is pressed together with time, which means every year I need more stuff added to the top. I need to add to the top, and you need to add to the top, and such that those lower layers have more and more weight on them, compressing them down in order to press them into that peat layer. Um, they estimate, I don't know who they are, but they estimate that it takes uh one thousand years to produce one meter of peat. Three feet? Three point three, but that's an easier than that. Oh so essentially one millimeter a year. Wow. Right? The thickness of a paper clip. Right, once a year. That's it. And a guy my age, that's like 12 feet. Right? Like I get it. You're really showing your age now. I am, I am. Um yeah, so that's those four things, if found in the right combinations, given enough time, you end up with peat. So you just said the word found. Yes, mostly because I don't create any of this stuff. So I just find things.

Gavin 17:00

So you you mentioned peat bogs, but are there like in Scotland or elsewhere, are there well-known places that have peat bogs?

Aaron 17:11

Yeah, so only place I only reason I know about peat and peat bogs and stuff was because of scotch. So in my head, that's a Scottish thing. Um, but the internet opens your eyes to things you didn't know before. That's not a conspiracy theory reference. I mean, I really did learn something. So there's actually a great deal of peat bogs um across the globe. There is a large amount of them in North America, the Pacific Northwest, and a good chunk of Canada is covered in them. Actually, the largest deposits um are in the Hudson Bay and the McKenzie River Valley in Canada. Um, so in the US, Washington, the upper states, Michigan, Minnesota, those areas, and then obviously Alaska. Right. Because Alaska is essentially the same as Canada, but without a king or queen that they have on their money. Um but yeah, so that's the US. There's also a whole series of tropical peat bogs that occur in Southeast Asia and along the Amazon River basin. Right? Again, think places that are really, really wet, lots of standing water that never does dry out. Um, there's actually even uh tropical peat bogs along the Congo basin, um, through the center of Africa. And then the ones that we're a little more familiar with because of Scotch production, which is the Northern Eurasia, which is what did you just say? Northern Eurasia. Oh, okay. Eurasia. I gotcha. I'm not sure what you thought I said, but let's let's move on. I feel like you're it's gonna be bad. So yeah, um the the boreal forest, which are the the forests through the northern parts of Europe and Asia, uh Eurasia um have a great deal of wetlands in them, right? And so that includes significant areas in Russia, Finland, Sweden, and then Ireland, and of course, Scotland. So yeah, there's actually peat bogs all over the planet. I had no idea.

Gavin 19:31

We just, I guess in my head, I've only ever really heard or thought about one country really when it comes to peat bugs.

Aaron 19:42

I have heard of distilleries that use Pacific Northwest, U.S., Washington, like that kind of area, um, that are that are peated whiskies that they're using locally sourced peat. Um, I don't know exactly where in that area. Um, so I knew there was some here in the US, but in my head, it was like, oh, just little bits, because you never hear about it, right? Must be huge peat bugs in Scotland and just little teeny peat bugs of our own. Yeah, no, me. Scotland's actually really small from a size standpoint of peat bugs.

Gavin 20:17

Well, I mean, Scotland's pretty small, just in general, when you look at it compared to, say, the state of Texas.

Aaron 20:23

True, but what I meant was like I I just assumed like the vast majority of peat was came from Scotland. But no, no, there's significantly larger peat bugs everywhere else on the planet.

Gavin 20:36

So we've talked a bit about what peat is um and the kind of location-specific um ideas of Scotland or of peat. Is there a way that people like to harvest it?

Aaron 20:54

Is there is there like how do you how do you I think harvest is the right word, okay? Right? Because you don't really make peat. Pete's already made. You just have to go collect it, but it's not laying out where you can just go pick it up. You have to do work to get to it. So we talked about water and vegetation gets piled up over years and years, and then the bottom layers actually get compressed enough to be what we would classify as peat. So one of the first things you gotta do is you gotta take all that top stuff off, right? So all the spoil. All of the, yeah, right. If you're into strip mining, you know these terms. I'm still relatively new. No, so you you go remove essentially topsoil, right? And kind of drain out a section so you can get to it. And then once you've once you've dug down to a certain level, like the earth material changes, right? It becomes more dense, um, more firm. It's not loose dirt anymore, right? And you get down to a Certain point, and then you have to begin to cut Pete out, right? So there's a couple different ways, either it's a flat bladed shovel or like an L-shaped to kind of cut pieces out, but you would dig a trench, and then you just keep widening that trench as you go. Um, so then what you end up with is a column bricks, right? I don't know if that's the right term, but that's roughly what the shape implies, right? It's kind of rectangular and long, and they would then stack those out in the sun. So you have to harvest your peat at relatively early in the dry season, because I don't want it to rain on my peat, right? I'm trying to dry it out. When is the dry season in Scotland? Um, it's like seven days, and they're not back to back. It's seven, seven, one single days. Those are the dry seasons. No, I I mean it's it's obviously summer months, right? Um, where you can get out there. Uh ultimately what you want to do is create whether it's stacks or standing kind of like soldiers in a row or whatever. The idea is you're going to get them up and elevated such that the breeze can blow through and dry them out. You don't want them all piled together because the inside doesn't get dry like the outside does. And you kind of let nature do as much of the work as possible. And then at some point it gets dry enough for you to easily go collect it, right? Obviously, as I dry, the weight falls, they shrink a little bit as they dry, um, makes them a little bit more manageable than hauling wet, muddy blobs out of the out of the field. Um, yeah, and then ultimately they're brought back, warehoused, or put into a barn where they continue to dry a bit with time, and then you ultimately save them um until they're ready for use, right? Because you don't typically use them all at one time. You have to collect them all in these few months, and then those have got to last you all year.

Gavin 24:03

It's an investment. Yeah. Like you are doing something for the future.

Aaron 24:08

That's why I think the phrase harvesting, I think, is very apropos. It's just like when you go collect grains, like I'm gonna collect all the grain right now and I'm gonna store it and use it throughout the year as I need it. Yeah, um, but I gotta do it now because I can't come back in a week. It might either might not be there or it might be too difficult to get to, or you know, a number of different reasons. I gotcha. Man, you feel like you're learning stuff? Yeah, like there's so much. But so when it comes to whiskey production, because it's not the only reason people harvest peat, it's just the one we're most focused on because it it goes because we're talking to making scotch. Um there are kind of three regions, and then within that, kind of several different peat bogs um in Scotland that collect peat for the production of whiskey. Um, the one I think most everybody immediately associates with is Isla, the island off the west coast. It is quintessentially peated. I totally understand that not everything from Isla is peated. We get that. But when you close your eyes and think peated smoky scotch, that's where your head tends to go first. But then there's also peat bogs in the highlands. There's also peat bogs on some of the more northern islands, like Orkney. And so there's actually six different six different peat bogs that are actively currently harvested for whiskey production. Um one in Orkney, one in Aberdeenshire, one in Banffshire, and three on Isla. So again, you can see why Isla tends to be the thing that everybody thinks of. So that's how the circle of rainwater runs. The circle of it in a very, very funny way. We are taking plant matter from the field, using thousand-year-old plant matter to make whiskey, and when we're done, the spent water from the production goes back to water the fields, and the grains go back to um to revitalize the soil, whether that's you run it through a cow first or not. But yes, this I'm I kind of made a joke about the cycle, right? Like all this stuff that goes into whiskey production, all the waste from whiskey production, ultimately goes back in to start the next batch. And it's not necessarily the next batch, it might be a batch a thousand years from now.

Gavin 27:00

What I absolutely love is essentially I'm drinking my vegetables.

Aaron 27:09

It's salad. It's salad. Is that what you're claiming? It's a mixed greens. Yeah, this is I don't know about that.

Gavin 27:17

I mean, that's what I like to tell my doctor is like I, you know, yeah, you know, bourbon. I drink my corn.

Aaron 27:25

Just so we're on the same page. I know we all call corn a vegetable, it's a starch. Yeah, pish posh. Same thing with potatoes. Like it's it's essentially just a round ball of bread. It's so delicious. It's true. True. There's very little things that I wouldn't put on bread that I also wouldn't put on a potato, so I get it. Fair. Good point. All right.

Gavin 27:52

So thank you for giving us a tour of Pete. It was a it was a condensed history, if you will. Yeah, I like it. It's better than condensed milk for sure. Um can we get back to what's in the glass a little bit? Yeah. All right. You are you ready to talk sips, savers? Nope.

Aaron 28:15

Sniff, sniffs, sips, and savers.

Gavin 28:17

We're gonna get t-shirts with that on it. So we can remember. Well, what it is. I need a banner hanging on the wall above the camera. So I know you've given us quite a bit of conversation, uh, but sorry, it's my my bottle. I want to know what you're getting on the nose.

Aaron 28:35

You're doing you're doing really good asking questions there. I appreciate it. Um, so yeah, do what it can. I mean, I'll be honest, the peat smoke wasn't as pronounced on the nose as I was expecting it to be. I think this is actually softened a little bit. Um, I'm sure a thing we'll talk a little bit more in the second half is kind of how smoke and peat interacts with whiskey. And one of the things that does tend to happen is the longer it sits in the barrel, the more the barrel kind of absorbs some of that flavor. And so part of me wonders is an age at eight years, six to eight years. Like, where does that put this? Because this isn't really peaty. So is this a didn't put as much peat in to begin with, or is this uh we put the normal amount in and this got absorbed by the barrel? Um, I will say though, you said ex bourbon and ex sherry barrels. I get much more bourbon notes. The vanillas, the honeys, that kind of stuff. Don't tend to get on the nose, I don't tend to get a lot of what I expect in sherry flavors. Okay. So yeah, to me, you smell real faint, light smoke, not overpowering. There's a soft honey and vanilla kind of note to the nose.

Gavin 29:57

Very similar to what I got. Um, I think there's uh also I would add like a creaminess to it on the nose, almost like a like a vanilla custard or cupcake. It's almost desserty. Yeah, there's something there on the nose that just maybe it's that expurbon that's really coming out, and that those, like you said, those vanillas. Um I think there is a slight, almost like leather note, like the the the smoke or the peatiness of what you would typically think of um a really peaty um isla scotch. Like, I don't get that smoke like you were mentioning. It's almost like being next to a campfire, but you're like 20 feet away from the campfire.

Aaron 30:49

Like you still get some of it up slightly upwind of the campfire. Yeah, like it's there, but it's not really.

Gavin 30:55

You're not you're not three feet from it, you're 20 feet, so you're getting a little bit of it. Um do you think that the palate continued in that direction?

Aaron 31:05

No, so it so partly yes, partly no. Um, I think the sweet honey vanilla kind of thing carried into the nose, or from the nose into the palate, the the the peat and smoke side almost disappears um while it's on the palate. Right? Across the tongue. I got a little bit of like a kind of faint saline, I mean just ever so slight. And then at the end of the, at the end of the sip, um, you remember green raisins? Not the red ones. There used to be the green, like they took green grapes and made them into raisins. I get that at the very end. Kind of golden, I think they called them golden raisins when I was a kid. Yeah, I get I get that on the palate towards the end. Okay, but it it leans into the sweet and leans away from the smoke.

Gavin 31:53

I I would disagree a little bit. I think I agree with your sweetness, but I think it it kind of takes on a new venture of I I got a lot more of the smoky toasted flavors um on the palette. Um, maybe a um, I don't know, like a toasted. I I think we mentioned it on uh the episode that we had with Big Chief uh with the whiskey trip. Almost like a toasted graham cracker almost kind of flavor. Like there's something toasted but has a grainy-ness to it that I felt like I got on the palette. Um, and then there's a bit of uh almost like a wet hay or a damp hay that I felt like on the palette I got.

Aaron 32:47

Yeah, I think we I think what we ultimately need to do is have a conversation where we define where does the palette stop and the finish start. Because we keep having these questions over flavors, and I'm like, yeah, that to me that was a finish flavor and not a palette flavor. I and and and it may just be where I feel like, oh, that was the end of the sip and this is the beginning of the finish. Um I on the finish, I think the smoke shows back up. Um, smoke show. I caught it. Um, I I get a bit of that toasted oak char kind of thing, and I get that honey nut Cheerio kind of maltiness that shows up on the finish. Um, so it's I think that honey sweetness still carries in, but I I think I I think it kind of had smoke at the beginning and it dipped on the palette and then it came back. Um yeah, I I the maltiness you mentioned on the palette, I get more on the finish than I think I did on the palette. But okay, it's there for sure.

Gavin 33:51

On the and I like the idea of actually going in and explaining a little bit of what each of these are, like nose. Most of us know what the nose is, but the palette in the middle. Right. No, the most the nose starts the it's the first one. It's not in the middle. It's the first. It's right in the middle. It's in the middle of it. It's the middle of the face. It's right in the middle of your face. It's right in front of your face. No, I I think on the finish, um, it's warm. I put well, let's just kind of equate it to a like a um a higher proof bourbon. They call it like well, a Kentucky bourbon, like the Kentucky hug. I feel like this is a warm hug.

Aaron 34:31

Like, oh, I think we're gonna do like a Scottish stiff arm over there.

Gavin 34:35

I don't I don't know what the Kentucky hug. I don't want the this yeah, the Scottish uppercut. No, I don't yeah, I don't know. Um I think that that it's it's it's warm, it's um inviting to me. Um there's a peppery spice that I got on the finish. And then I even wrote down there's a little sea salt that I feel like that I get on it. Right. So almost like a dark chocolate with some um sea salt sprinkled on top.

Aaron 35:14

You get a little bitterness, you get a little Yeah, I don't know as if I'd have gotten much chocolate out of it, but yeah, I understand what you're saying with sea salt for sure. Yeah. All right, time for a number. Yeah, I already wrote mine down. Oh, jeez. I'm not looking. I'm not looking. I know, but if I say it, then you'll be like, oh, one more than that. Surprise, surprise. All right. Uh tell me when you're ready. I'll start telling you why I gave it the score. Okay. I'm still going with, I'm trying to figure out in my heated scotch ranges where am I putting it. Place in my pen strategically so you can't cheat. All right. So for me, I really like how soft the peat is on this. Um, it it allows the sweetness of the barreling to come through, which I enjoy immensely. Um, the other thing I'll say is a lot of times when you're kind of dancing back and forth around peat, um, a lot of times peated whiskies run much later in the distillation process and carry with it a lot of really heavy compounds. Um, those compounds can come across like creosote, tar, tennis balls, rubber notes, like that kind of stuff. This doesn't have doesn't have any of those things.

Gavin 36:28

All the things that you think sound absolutely disgusting to things.

Aaron 36:33

Oh, actually, no, never mind, I get it. Yeah, but this this doesn't have it, this really does lean itself towards more of what I would say a traditional Highlands, lighter, sweeter, fruitier scotch that has peat laying underneath, right? Um, and so for that reason, or those reasons, I'm at an 86. That's a tasty bottle. That is a tasty bottle. You picked 86, didn't you? I did not.

unknown 37:04

Oh.

Aaron 37:05

You had that look in your eyes, like we had connected. We almost actually. Good lord, I'm all over the place.

Gavin 37:12

You are, you cannot even guess it. I'm at an 85. You won out on this one. Um, on the 86 number. 85 for me. I think that this is if you were to categorize a peated scotch, I think that this is almost a right up the middle kind of. It's not so smoky and over on this direction, it's not so light that it is a typical scotch. So I think it is something that is when I say up the middle peated scotch, that might throw some people off.

Aaron 37:53

But I was gonna say this isn't the this is not in the middle of peated scotches, right? This is in the middle of scotches on that edge of peated, yes, and that'll be 100%.

Gavin 38:04

100%. And so, like, that's why I put it an 85. It's delicious. Oh, I want it on the shelf.

Aaron 38:12

Would it have been higher? Are you saying that you gave it an down to an 85 because of that or up to an 85 because of that?

Gavin 38:20

I think I put it down to an 85.

Aaron 38:21

Yeah, it was one of the things I really enjoyed most about it, and so I actually upped it. Upped upped it because of that.

Gavin 38:28

Yeah. Um, I've got some lightly peated scotches uh that are less peated than this, that I have rated a lot higher. Um, but I scored that a little differently in my head or in my rankings at the time. I think leveling out and having a base level of just scotch in general, that's kind of where I'm where I'm hitting on this one.

Aaron 38:56

Yeah, yeah. I if if you've been unsure about Pete and you don't want to accidentally get run over by the Pete truck, this is a good one to start with. 100%. Yeah, I agree. Uh I appreciate you bringing that bottle over today. Absolutely. It's an absolute drink. All right. 85, 86, long rows, heated release. Stick with us and we'll drink another one. It has come to our attention that not all of you have yet connected with the Noble Dram. So first, click that subscribe button down below so you don't miss a single minute of the Noble Dram shenanigans. Also, if you enjoy what you see, click that like button. Help guide our conversations. And lastly, leave us a comment so we can connect directly with you. Remember, the dram becomes noble when you share it with your friends. As much as I have loved this pour.

Gavin 40:05

Well, I did love that poor. I did love it. I did. I did too. It's great. I'm gonna ask a another pour. Can you, Mr. Aaron, give us another pour?

Aaron 40:19

Absolutely. All right, so pour for pour number two. I think um when we were given the test.

Gavin 40:25

And that's not that's not like all pour number two. It is poor number two.

Aaron 40:30

That's fair. I knew, I knew when we said we should do a Peter episode, Gavin was going to go non-ILA because Gavin likes to be atypical, if you will. So I said, I need to go Isla, but I also like to go atypical. So tonight we are pouring Ko'Ela 12 year. That's a good size Gavin pour. It is, that's how I like it. You know, it's sleeping on the couch tonight. All right. This one clocks in at 43% ABB for the non-Brits. That's uh 86 proof. Uh as I said, 12-year X American oak casks. Okay. Um, so the assumption here, bourbon does not actually say bourbon, just says American oak, but I think we all understand what that means. Um so the Cole Hila distillery is the workhorse of Isla. Oh, really? Even though that's a bold statement, even though it is probably one of the rarer single malts to find on a shelf. And here's why. So um, they didn't begin releasing a single malt until 2002, although the distillery began production in 1846. Holy smokes! So it's a lot of years of making whiskey for blending purposes. Um, they were purchased by Diageo back in 1990. We've talked about Diaggio before when we were talking classic malts, massive company. Um these guys have twice the production capacity of any other distillery on Isla. Um at just over 6.5 million liters per year. So it's a lot. Kohila, in Gaelic, we like to do this. Koila means the sound of Isla. Beautiful name. That's a gorgeous name. Um, almost, almost all of what they produce goes into blends. Somewhere in the neighborhood, about 95% of what they make goes into blends. So a very small amount makes it into single malts. Where you, the average layman at home, um is this scotch for starters? It's not an insult. Those who don't know a lot of this is a lot of things. I don't know.

Gavin 43:15

That's very insulting.

Aaron 43:17

You've probably had Kolela whiskey and didn't know it. Ko Lila is the peted home of Johnny Walker. So if you've ever had Johnny Walker blended scotch, all of the smoky peaty notes that show up in that scotch, that's Kohl Leela.

Gavin 43:39

So both owned by the same company. Memory serves me correct, wasn't it the Glenn Kinshi? That was also a part of Correct.

Aaron 43:49

There are four homes of Johnny Walker, I believe, if my memory serves right. All right. Um that when you get there, there's the golden Johnny Walker statue out front. That those Make up the core samplings. There are a whole slew of others that ultimately get blended in, right? That in their in their blending process. However, those four are the ones that get to claim the home of Johnny Walker. This is the Isla home of Johnny Walker. Oh, that's fun. Cole Hila 12-year single malt. So while we, I'm gonna get this right this time. Sniff, sip, and savor. Aye. Ooh, right off the bat, I like the smell of this one. All right. We talked a lot in the first half about where Pete comes from. On the second half, what I'd really like to delve into a little more is like, well, how does that actually get used in making whiskey? How does that become what we get in the glass? Uh-huh. And then I want to talk about why do we like peat? Why do we not like peat? Or I like I want to I want to use the end of the episode today as a guide for those who are trying to figure out their way into or around the peat out there. So let's start though with. We talked about how you go out and you find peat and it's been made and you've harvested the peat and you've brought it back. What do people normally do with peat?

Gavin 45:26

So for peat, it's a bit of misconception of when it comes to whiskey. We're gonna talk a little bit about the original uses of peat, but I want to first and foremost start by saying that I think there's some misconception on peat when it comes to whiskey, and that peat is actually not an ingredient in whiskey. Correct. So let's just kind of throw that out the window. It's not an ingredient, it is a happenstance by which um the malting process, which we'll dive into that here in a minute, and we've talked a little bit about it. Go back to our malt episode of Scotch for Starters, which is number one in Scotch for Starters.

Aaron 46:11

And this should be like now that you say this, so I get ring it reminds me of things we've talked about previously. It should be obvious that peat isn't an ingredient. We started this whole thing when we said the rules of scotch is three ingredients water, yeast, and malted barley. Those are the three ingredients. Pete's not mentioned in that list, right? That's correct. Um, so yeah, the idea that peat isn't actually what's in the glass makes sense. Also, no floating chunks in my scotch either.

Gavin 46:42

There's no chunks, there's no green salad floating vegetative matter. So, first and foremost, just want to get that off the table. It is not an ingredient of whiskey, it's a hapostance uh through the m barley or malted barley process. So we'll get to that in here in a minute. Um but your question really asks, like, what do people use?

Aaron 47:03

Well, you mentioned historically it's a little different now. So look it, take us down that rabbit hole. Where did this start historically?

Gavin 47:11

So we talked a bit about um, you know, uh peat being harvested, dried, and then they burn it, right? It's a it's a fuel source. So think of it as um a log of wood um as like uh your traditional way of creating fire. Um people would use peat in Scotland and other parts of the world to burn it for fuel. Uh, there are a lot of places that aren't around forests and wooded areas, so they had to come up with other ways of creating and sustaining fire. Peat was one of those ways.

Aaron 47:58

Yeah, not too dissimilar to where we came from. Like I grew up in western Kansas. Gavin grew up in in central Oklahoma. Um, there's not a lot of trees in those areas either. And they talked about the old settlers when they would come through would collect buffalo chips. Yep, there you go, right? Um, which was the undigested vegetative matter that came out of the back of a buffalo. You were just saying when I said dead animals, no, no, no, no, there's none of that in this whiskey. Um, but yeah, like the idea, like when you picked it up, it was just dry fibrous plant matter and like it burns. Um, you gotta let it dry first. I think it makes sense. You gotta let the smell dissipate a little bit. Yeah, I'm I'm just imagining like everybody's bread just kind of tasted off. But in a lot of less rough stuff. Um, but yeah, I it it makes perfect sense. But ultimately, when it comes to drinking whiskey, they're not just using heat to heat the the office space um that they make whiskey. That's not how this came to taste like this. So, so go back and and let's focus a little more on where does it find its way into whiskey, not in the glass, but in whiskey production.

Gavin 49:22

I gotcha. Okay, so um let's talk and start with the barley and germination. Right? So in Go watch the malt episode. Yeah, go watch the malt episode. We talked a lot about it. Uh 100%. Um essentially, what happens? I'm gonna paraphrase that part of the conversation. Malt or barley is soaked uh in water to help it start germinating. And essentially, um this is starting the process of manipulating the seed. We we talked a bit about that. Starches become sugars, yes, sugars become whiskey. We start activating the enzymes to become sugars, and to help stop that process, we need to dry it. So we've wet it, we've let it set. Um, now we need to dry it. How do you dry something most of the time? You put heat to it, right? So what they do is then take the peat that has been harvested, dried, and is now ready for use, they will then take that and put it in a kiln and essentially have a malting floor or an area where the malt is stationary and then for a while, and then they burn the peat, and then that peat smoke rises through the grain and then continues up. So if you look at a Scottish distillery, they have these pergolas. I mean, it's kind of an iconic look at a distillery, uh, basically almost like a pyramided roof, and then almost like a copola or something at the top, which is vented. So then all of that smoke then comes up from the peated um kind of uh uh uh place where it's being burnt, and then it's coming up through the malted floor, malting floor, and then up through the central pergola, and then up and out.

Aaron 51:30

Yeah, and I mean I again to harken it to where we are, um it's the same process by which we cook brisket and ribs on a smoker, right? We light a fire, we let that smoke draw through, that cooks and dries out. Um, the only difference is in this instance, it's not a well-rubbed brisket. It's it's barley, right? Yep. And so it's gonna dry that out. The fun part is very similar to how we approach barbecue. When the grain is wet, the surface of the grain is moist, it attracts all that smoke flavor and it sticks to it, right? Yep. Um so initially, when you first load your grains in and start running smoke through it, man, the smoke hits it real quick. As the grain gets drier, the amount of smoke that gets added reduces and reduces. And eventually you're not really adding much smoke flavor, you're just drying grain. Um, yeah, same exact concept.

Gavin 52:33

Let me just take out my notes. Oh, is that there's oh no, is that a I didn't no, no, no. Uh I'll just I'll just kind of um I just get excited about brisket. That's my problem. I'm hungry now. Uh so once once that uh peat is burned and it goes through the grains, there's an absorption process, which is where Aaron was touching a little bit about that. So it is absorb the the grains absorb those compounds, and those compounds are called phenols. Phenols. Phenols, which essentially imparts the smoky um and charred slash earthy flavors into the barley.

Aaron 53:17

Yeah. So I I mean I think the obvious we talk about burning peat, you expect it to bring in smoke. I think the other thing that often gets lost, no different than when we're cooking barbecue, and depending on what kind of wood you part, imparts a different flavor. Yep. Um, there is a distinctive earthy kind of vegetation of flavors that make its way to the grain, right? It absolutely does.

Gavin 53:46

Yep. So your original question is kind of how does it impart in the whiskey process? So we talked about kind of the germination, how we pause that, uh, so that we the grain doesn't start growing groies on them, right? So that's why we dry it. In the whiskey production process, the barley is milled, mashed, fermented, distilled, and then matured. And those phenols survive that whole process.

Aaron 54:19

It's really impressive how we talk about like 50 parts per million is not a lot of something, right? And that you can crush it, ferment it, distill it, then distill it again. If you're spring break another half time, however that it goes, right, and then put it in a barrel and come back years later and it's still in there. Like that, that is impressive how pungent that can be. Um, it's it's also one of the things that when you sit down and take a look at a parts per million reference on a bottle, I will warn you, those don't always translate like you think they would. Depending on how they run the still, depending on how late they run the still, depending on how long it's been in the barrel, how new the barrel is, how much does the barrel absorb, all of that ultimately changes that the parts per million that go in isn't necessarily the same parts per million that comes out. I've had some whiskeys that claim to be very heavily peated, and then you drink it and you're like, it doesn't drink like a heavily peated scotch. Right. Not all that peat has made it to the end. I've had other ones that claim to be relatively low peat, and you're like, well, it's got a lot to it, right? Like that the way in which they went through production, the way it was matured, didn't cut it down as bad. So um I'll say it's one of the problems that like there is no secret code to know exactly what you're getting on a bottle. Um, I guess you're just gonna have to drink it and find out.

Gavin 56:03

So one thing I'd like to say before we put a pen in this part of it is again, peat is not added to whiskey. It is actually before whiskey even started, it is the very beginning of a peated whiskey's life, right?

Aaron 56:22

Yeah, yeah, it's really early in the process. I'm just from the sheer number of steps, from the sheer time frame, right? Like it lives in the in the barrel for years and years and years, and from the moment they start the malting process to the to the moment it runs off the still is only a week and a half, right? Like it's not like that that part is really condensed. They do a lot of stuff that first week and a half, um, and then don't do a ton for a long time. Years and years and years. Years. So we we talked a little bit at the beginning. The plant life material that makes up your peat changes the way the peat comes out, right? What's in the peat changes the taste of its smoke. How wet the peat is when you light it on fire changes how much smoke, um, changes how hot it burns, all of that, how wet the grain is when it goes in, how long is the grain exposed to the smoke? Uh all of that goes into it. What kind of barrel does it go in? How long was it in the barrel? All of that changes how the peat comes out at the end. So, where I kind of want to move into here is let's talk about peats that we like, peats that we think are maybe a little harsh. What are some of the things that typically gets associated with peted scotches that might change people's perception of peted scotches, right? Because you you talked earlier, mentioned that that was 50 parts per million. By definition, amongst the way whiskey producers talk, that would classify as a heavily peted scotch. Right. 50 parts per million is on the higher end. If you go back and watch, or maybe you watched it the first time, um, our episode with David Blackmore from Mardbeg, he talked about they had one of the highest parts per million on standard production, and it was 65. Right? The incredibly big, bold, pediest of all time brand, Octamore, normally peats theirs to anywhere from a hundred to three hundred parts per million. Right, which is a lot compared to 50. Yeah. But we're still only talking 300 out of a million, right? Um, but you often see stuff that says lightly peated that might only be five or ten parts per million. Yeah. So it just really varies. So if you were sitting down and someone says, I don't know a ton about Pete, how would you guide them into trying Pete for the first time? Are you a grab them by the back and push them into the deep end of the pool and give them the biggest, pitiest thing, and like you're either gonna love it or hate it? Um, or are you a tiptoe-win kind of guy?

Gavin 59:26

I've done it both ways.

Aaron 59:28

Me too. Me too. I for my own personal enjoyment, pushing them into the deep end is fun. Um I'm not positive if it's for their enjoyment.

Gavin 59:36

I'm gonna say this, and if my sister-in-law um watches, she can be like, Yeah, why are you saying this? Um, so last time one of my sister-in-laws came and stayed with us, uh she we were her and I were drinking some whiskey, and uh I was like, What what do you want? Do you want something peaty and smoky, or you you want a scotch that you know is pretty easy as if she's like, Get give me smoky peaty. And so I gave her that uh smoky peaty scotch, and it will be renamed or not named in this episode. Maybe we'll try it, or maybe we have tried it. Um and I think she took two sips of it and put it down and didn't touch it.

Aaron 1:00:18

And so it's a trick for getting extra scotch for yourself. Yeah. Just pour something you know they're not gonna drink. And I'm like, just give me that.

Gavin 1:00:24

Exactly. So I felt like, man, maybe I shouldn't have gone to the deep end for somebody or people that I want to enjoy this. Uh, maybe I should start something a little less harsh and um kind of navigate that avenue with them. Um and start them, you know, because let's just say most episodes um we have a pre-poor to kind of help get our palates going. Sometimes we don't, like tonight we did not. We went straight into uh peated scotch.

Aaron 1:01:02

Yeah, and and we didn't really discuss why, but I I think part of my mindset for saying no, let's not, is just because you drink another peated scotch doesn't mean it's like the peted scotch you're going to have, right? Right. Like um that turn into peat can go in a bunch of different directions. And so just in the two bottles we have, there's a distinctly different peat, right? I think if we switch the order, I don't know is if we give the same scores when it's all said and done, right? So it's always a little unnerving to run down that that peated rabbit hole, if you will.

Gavin 1:01:43

Yeah, and I think um when you were talking about the scores, it all depends also. Um, we've talked about it a bunch, um, kind of what your mood is. Did you have something to eat before this? Like all of those things factor into your palate on that specific day on that set on that time. So, you know, when I made that pour for my sister-in-law, it was, you know, it was the first thing that we had to drink that night. There was no real pre-poor, there was nothing normal with the palate, it was just straight punch in the face, let's let's get to get in kind of thing.

Aaron 1:02:23

There's no there's no jabs to start it, it was just one big right hook to get going.

Gavin 1:02:28

Right. And I can see where that would be rough. And so when I when I look at people that are thinking about or want to get into this, I almost don't want to scare them away, right? Because I think that there is a scariness part of that people can perceive into a peted scotch because they've heard the stories of the big bold peedy things, and they're like, Yeah, sulfur, tennis balls, creosote, those things don't sound good to me.

Aaron 1:02:56

Everyone I've ever met who said, I don't like scotch, when you sit down and say, Explain to me why you don't like scotch, the story has always been I was expecting a bourbon and somebody gave me the most horrendous campfire of whiskey I've ever had. And you're like, Yeah, that that's on them, right? If if you're not preparing your your your buddy for what's coming, like you're just setting them up for failure. I'm not a big fan of that approach for sure.

Gavin 1:03:28

Unless it's a joke, unless you're like, I'm gonna really get them. I'm gonna get them.

Aaron 1:03:32

We're gonna take them down this road. I it's it uh almost has become a bit of a badge of honor, though, to have somebody say, I don't, I don't do scotch because I don't like Pete. And I was like, Well, we're gonna find you a scotch you like. That's right. And then ultimately what happens is you start start serving them Highlands and space heights that are fruity and light and and sweet, and they're like, Oh, yeah, these this is nothing like what I thought scotch was. And you're like, Yes, you're right. And then without them knowing it, you begin heading down the darker trail and and dabbling into Pete. And then at some point they're like, Oh, that that one's really smoky. I was like, You have go back and try the one we just had, and you realize that's not smoky at all now, right? Um, you do s you do tend to become a little palate numb, so to speak, to it. Yeah, I would agree. I I think the the obvious answer is you take what you know and you push the envelope slightly, right? If if what they like is light floral, okay, perfect. Well, have you tried anything that's got a sherry? And they say, no, like, okay, well, I'm not gonna give you the big sherry bomb, I'm gonna give you something that's got a little sherry influence, right? And we'll work through that. Um, if somebody says, hey, what about um what about this? Have you ever had anything smoky? And they're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, really. Smoky out. Okay, hold up. Let's go find something last week's bottle that was uh aged in peated casks, right? Okay, well that gives you a dabble of peat without being fully peated, right? And then work into lighter scotches that add peat as opposed to running straight to the bottom. You mentioned um, you mentioned the notion of the heavy flavors and those heavy phenols, the tennis balls and rubber and creosote. The reason you tend to find those in peated scotches that you don't find them in others is that the flavors of peat come off the still in a very similar time frame, a similar temperature range as those compounds. So if I'm going to get the peat to come through the distillation process, I kind of get some of that other stuff too. So to that end. Some of the more heavily peated stuff tends to be heavier in those other flavors. Sometimes what that means is we begin to associate that peat tastes like tennis balls. And I'd make the argument peat doesn't taste like tennis balls. But it's hard to get the peat flavor without getting the tennis ball flavor. And so when you begin to see things like the long row, right, that are lighter peat, not as heavy a combo. You know, like, oh well, that's a different twist on peat than I think we get other places. I will say for me, the Kolila comes closer to what I would consider to be that typical heavy peat flavor. Although, not to give away all my score, I don't think that's as heavily peated as I had expected it to be here.

Gavin 1:06:50

So here's here's a question I have. Let's give it some notes. Well, are you going to question? I got a question. Okay. Um so thinking about what we just talked about, and I'm gonna throw a question back at you that is similar but just a little different. Okay. Imagine you've got one minute to convince a bourbon drinker that Pete isn't that scary. What's your sales pitch?

Aaron 1:07:18

Yeah, in one minute, I don't know is if you'd do it.

Gavin 1:07:21

All right, I'll give you five. I'll give you a minute. Give me five minutes. What's your sales pitch?

Aaron 1:07:26

I've known a lot of people, myself included, who was a bourbon drinker who became a Scotch uh drinker and ultimately became a Peter Scotch drinker. The reason I say that one minute, five minutes probably isn't enough to convince you to do it, is because I'm going to need to break that into 10 30-second increments, or I'm like, try this one. And then in a week, I'm like, I'm gonna try this one. Right? Because it's a slow process. Um, it's if if I'm really interested in helping you understand what scotch is, I don't throw you in the deep end, right? I I introduce it to you uh an inch of depth at a time, so to speak. Um, so that all being said, that's why I I say that's a tough sales pitch to make. What I will say is the natural maturation process of most people's palettes is that you tend to like sweeter in the beginning and work towards drier, more robust flavors. You see that even within bourbons, that people start with the lighter, sweeter bourbons, weededs especially, and then at some point they're drinking the really big, bold, spicy, um, predominant flavors of bourbon. I think the same thing tends to happen to people in in Scotch. I know that's exactly how my own experience with wine was, it's how my wife's experience with wine was. Uh, the times I've sat and drank tequilas with somebody who really knew what they were doing, that's kind of that process they give them to you. It's an order in which when we do tasting events, right? We say, let's start with the lighter, sweeter, and move towards the bolder and drier. So I think as long as you continue to push that envelope, it's the natural progression. I think one of the tendencies for all of us, right? We're we're heat creatures of habit, is that you stop pushing that envelope and you're like, I like where I'm at. There's no reason to go further, right? And then ultimately it stops you from getting out and trying that new thing that you may very well love every bit as much as where you started. There it was. I don't all right. Somebody check the time.

Gavin 1:09:42

I felt like five minutes and he didn't even answer the question.

Aaron 1:09:45

No, no, I just gave the pitch at home. There's like 12 more beaten scotch drinkers online right now. They're like, Wow, give it a shot. Aaron's good.

Gavin 1:09:54

Um, it's funny because when I remember the first time I sat down with my dad and actually had a conversation with him about scotch whiskey, um, he was like, dude, I can't do scotch. He's like, I just scotch is not my thing. I've never really been into it, can't drink it. And I think it's because he probably went harsh right away or had a bad experience with it and was like, I just can't touch it. And that's probably why he really liked the lighter things.

Aaron 1:10:27

It would be nice for the layman if on the back of the label there was a little bar that went from green to red, and it warned you how like to let you know what you were about to get into, because quite often there's very little on the outside of the label that actually tells you what you're getting into.

Gavin 1:10:48

This is what we need to do. So, uh, for those out there that like the show Hot Ones, where they have the Scoville uh range, we need to make that for whiskey. We need here's what we're gonna do. Our editor.

Aaron 1:11:02

No, no, I like this. I like this idea. We we need to find a Scotch newbie and we're gonna get them on here, and it'll be like eight glasses that get progressively peedier as they go. And before they're like, I can't do this. I can't do this, I'm done.

Gavin 1:11:16

So instead of hot wings, we're going whiskey. Oh, I love this idea. Eight glasses of whiskey, though, is small. Small glasses. Oh small glasses. I'm not porn.

Aaron 1:11:27

No, no, no. All right, let's talk about nose and palette and finish. Gavin, what do you get on the nose on this one?

Gavin 1:11:40

On this one, um, I think you mentioned it. This one really hits some of those typical heated notes on the nose uh for me. I think that it is campfirey.

Aaron 1:11:56

Um one could hear any of that over the screen.

Gavin 1:12:01

Uh it's campfire-y is what he's saying. Camp fiery. There's ash. Um there is a slight um band-aid-y note that I got on the nose. Um almost like you peel off the non-sticky parts of a band-aid, and you get a little whiff of it. The the the band-aid wrapper. Yes. Yeah. There's a bit of that. Um, I also put that there is a grassy, wet, damp hay again. Yep. Um, and then I think there is a briny sea salty that also comes out of this on the nose.

Aaron 1:12:42

Yeah, I think the only thing I would add, and it's ironically probably one of the bigger flavors I picked up on this, I get citrus. I get like lemongrass, lemon, maybe lime zest.

Gavin 1:12:56

Now that you say that, yeah, I get it.

Aaron 1:12:58

Um, yeah, and there is an oiliness to this. Um I the peat. There were a couple things you mentioned, like, I okay, kind of there. Um, I actually thought this was a little less peaty than I I shouldn't say that. I don't think the peat was less than I thought. I didn't get the sulfury rubber tar, creoso. I didn't get any of that on the nose that I kind of expected to get. This is a more well-rounded, softer edged peat on the nose to me. Now, I this is what happens, right? Like you mentioned six things in the tasting that I've already written down for the palette. So go on and tell everybody what I'm gonna get on the finish because you think you get it on the palette.

Gavin 1:13:50

So I kind of reversed a little bit on the nose. I didn't really get the citrusy until you said it. It was on the palette that I got almost like a lime zest on it. Um I think that as somebody that loves to barbecue, and every Monday is barbecue night in my house. Um that's not true. You grill on the grill. I grill.

Aaron 1:14:16

It's not barbecue. We can start a whole nother hour-long discussion on this. No, I grill every day. If you're cooking at over 300 degrees, that's grilling.

Gavin 1:14:27

That is not barbecue. All right, all right. We're not gonna get into that banter right now. Um, a new show, maybe.

Aaron 1:14:36

I don't. The last thing I need is another adventure. 12 hours a week researching barbecue stuff.

Gavin 1:14:43

Um, I do think that there's delicious, though. I think there's a bit of barbecue smoke. Um honey, ash, vanilla come out in this on the palette for me.

Aaron 1:14:57

Yeah. Um, here's where I got a little bit more of the sea salt, seaweed kind of thing going on. Um it almost reminds me a little bit of the the green seaweed paper, whatever that they uh wrap around a sushi roll. Yeah. A little bit of that. Um I I get this hint of acidity that I'd almost say is pickled ginger-esque. It didn't pickle me for sure. No, I it but the funny thing is I actually think the palate is sweeter than the nose. Like I I picked up more of the the honey caramel sweetiness that kind of showed up. Um, does it stay where you expect it on the finish?

Gavin 1:15:49

Uh yeah, I think uh for me, uh I think it's got the smoke, it's got a sweet smoke, I guess I should say. Um maybe a medium to long. It's not long to me, but I think that it ventures, and maybe this is a whole different scale we need to have on quick to medium to long finish. Uh, this is kind of just off of a medium for me on the finish. I think it lingers a little bit, but then it dissipates.

Aaron 1:16:24

I'll say I think there's a lot of stuff going on on the finish. I get lime, I get smoke, um, I get the peat. There's hints at those darker notes. Right? Not bold, but hints at it. Um but all of those I say will dissipate fairly reasonably, right? In that kind of medium to medium short range.

Gavin 1:16:52

Yeah.

Aaron 1:16:52

But the peat itself lingers for quite some time. Like it really does kind of level out. It never never gets to zero. It hums. Yeah, no, there's there's peat there. There's I I get just a like a low-level kind of smokiness. Like if you've ever gone and eaten barbecue and then like two hours later done something and realized my hands still smell like smoke. Like it's it's that I I hadn't even noticed it until I did something, and now I can smell it again. Yes, to me, that's where that comes in.

Gavin 1:17:25

As somebody that had, well, we both have beards when you're out next to the grill, right? Uh and then two hours later, you're like, I can still smell that smoke smoke.

Aaron 1:17:36

We've all been somewhere and you sat around a campfire or somebody had a smoker going, you didn't realize quite how close you had stood to the smoker because when you were there, it like you noticed it, but you didn't. And then you get up the next morning and go to pick up your laundry basket or whatever, and you're like, Oh my, oh my god. Oh, like I just reeks this morning. I've had a chance to reset, and now I realize quite how far off I was. Um I love that though. I there's something about the smell of cigars on your clothes the next day.

Gavin 1:18:07

I can't argue. Um, and the beard, like I mean, when I have a cigar night, right, my wife's like, straight to the shower. I'm like, what, you don't like it? Like, and she's like, no, go. And I I wake up in the next morning if I don't shower uh before I go to bed, and it's like I smell it and I love it. There's something about that stale cigar smoke or pipe smoke. I get you great. I get you. You're preaching to the choir, as they say.

Aaron 1:18:34

All right, give this one a number, Gavin.

Gavin 1:18:37

This one for me came in just a tad bit higher. I think that this deserves an 87. That's a that's a fair score. It is more along, like if we were to track it along a you know, overall scotch uh realm and not just a peted scotch. I think this squeaks out just above the long row in the idea in your head of what scotch um petit scotch should taste like.

Aaron 1:19:11

Yeah, I think I think this comes closer to aligning with what I would say quintessential petit scotches, right? Um I'll say first I'm giving this one an 85. A solid score. I think it's really tasty. I actually gave it down one tick from the long row because I like the fact that the long row was atypical. Right? Um, it it is a fun twist. Um the one fun part for me has been in exploring the various distilleries around Isla is getting to a point where without knowing the label, I can recognize the distillery based upon their peat profile, their where do they make their cuts, how much sulfur y notes do you get and not get where their phenols lie. Yeah, I each one of them kind of has its own little signature, so to speak. Um ironically, this isn't the most robust and bold and crazy Isla. But that may actually be what makes it so tasty, right? Um, so yeah, if if you were saying, I I've tried a couple pita scotches and I'm interested in them, but I don't know exactly what I like, like Koila feels like a good launching point for the rest of Isla. And it's such a fun name. It is as well. It is, it is.

Gavin 1:20:38

And if you don't know how to pronounce it, you're not the only person. For me, when I first had a Ko'ila, how do you say that?

Aaron 1:20:48

Ka'ola. I don't, yeah, I I I'll be honest, every distillery I've ever visited, I was like, oh, been screwing that up for a long time.

Gavin 1:20:58

Um yeah, it's one of my favorite things to correct him on is how to pronounce things, if you haven't noticed.

Aaron 1:21:05

I I think it's why he gives me the hard words to say.

Gavin 1:21:08

It's really unfair. Like long roll, long roll, long row versus. Oh, see, it could be long grow.

Aaron 1:21:17

It could. Yeah. Well, if we're wrong, I want him to hear about it. All right. So, third installment. We've been debating a fourth, uh.

Gavin 1:21:31

Or fifth or sixth.

Aaron 1:21:32

Who knows? The the truth of the matter is what we really had intended to be very cursory level ended up being very introductory, but still quite deep. Um, so I don't know if the original intent of this series has been met. Uh, the original intent was uh my wife said, I don't know anything about Scotch. I wish she would make an episode that I could understand, and I think we absolutely destroyed that, and not in a good way. An unrecognizable intent. What I don't know is if she's watched any of these. I'm possible. Well, she hasn't commented on it yet, so I'm assuming no. Um, but yeah, no, this has been a lot of fun. I I think for me, one of the struggles that you always have is it's very easy to get lost in the weeds and down the rabbit hole and and too focused on minutiae. It's kind of fun to take a step back and look at it in a very broad sense and in a wider range. Um, and so for that, I thank you all for coming with us on this. This has been a lot of fun. So until next week, cheers.

unknown 1:22:38

Hence.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:43

We want to thank you, our noble listener, for joining us. We believe each whiskey has a story, and so do you. So give us your thoughts by leaving a comment. And if you have a whiskey you'd like to see us share, let us know. You don't want to miss a single episode, so subscribe to our YouTube channel and make sure to like and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to stay up to date on the Noble Dream.

Gavin 1:23:02

And if you find watching us difficult, you can always listen to each episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. As always, be noble and enjoy your journey responsibly.