I’m a firm believer that, assuming you drink, there is a whisky out there for everybody.

Whisky is a complex, sophisticated, unique, delicious beverage that provides layer upon layer of different flavour profiles ranging from sweet and fruity, to aromatic and floral. Without question, one of the most popular, and often polarizing flavour profiles of whisky, however, is peat. 

Peat, which is basically heavily compacted layers of rotting vegetation that is literally millions of years old, has been used as a fuel source in the malting process of whisky distillation for centuries. During this process, the barley grains would take on the smoky flavour from the burning peat smoke, giving the whisky an earthy, smoky flavour that whisky drinkers tend to either love or hate. 

While you can source fantastic peated whiskies from all whisky regions in Scotland, and indeed, all across the globe, peat is a flavour profile that is particularly popular in Islay. In fact, many consider peat to be synonymous with this whisky region. 

If you’re partial to a peaty dram, you’ll love what I’m going to cover today because I’ll be looking at 4 of the peatiest drams ever produced.

How is Peat Measured?

As I’m talking to you today about the most heavily peated whiskies in the world, it’s probably a good idea for us to look at how peat is measured. 

Peat is quite the polarizing flavour profile when it comes to whisky. In fact, it’s the Marmite of the whisky world, as you either tend to love it or hate it. Peated whiskies have earthy, smoky flavours, but peat flavour profiles offer so much more. While they may not sound the most appetising, terms such as petrol, burning rubber, iodine, burnt meat, charcoal, medicinal, mossy, and even soapy, can all be used to describe peated whiskies. 

That’s all well and good, but how can we measure just how peaty a dram really is? Well, grab your lab coats and safety glasses, because we’re getting all scientific now. You see, peat-dried barley contains aromatic compounds called phenols. These chemical compounds are responsible for creating the smoky and earthy flavours we associate with peated whisky. 

Phenol levels in whisky are measured in PPM, or parts per million. It isn’t quite that black and white, and there is more science to it than that, but basically, the higher the PPM, the peatier the dram. 

4 of the Peatiest Drams Ever Produced

Now that we understand a little more about peat in our whiskies, let’s look at some of the smokiest whiskies, past and present. 

Here are 4 of the peatiest drams ever produced.