Summertime. The sun is merciless, the air is sweltering… who doesn’t want a tasty beverage to beat the heat? So next time you ponder the contents of your trusty whisky cabinet for a refreshing summer dram, why not grab a peated scotch?
Say what?
Yes, a peated scotch.
On the surface, peat to beat the heat seems counterintuitive. When one grabs for a summer beer, one usually reaches for a nice, crisp lager or a bright, hoppy IPA. Those hefty (and high-alcohol) porters and stouts tend to be left for winter and cooler climes. In that same vein, one would expect a light and grassy Lowland scotch or maybe a sweeter Bourbon to be a great seasonal dram.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that those aren’t great options. They are.
Just don’t look past the peat.
Consider this. That most smoky of foods, barbecue, is a summertime tradition. Texas brisket, Carolina pulled pork, Memphis ribs, Santa Maria tri-tip… do any of those scream temperate summer weather to you? Smoky food just goes with blistering sun. The same can be said for smoky drinks. And that means peat.
So here are a couple peaty bottles–and a couple smoky cocktails–to consider next time you want to beat the heat with whisky.
BOTTLES
Port Charlotte SC:01 2012 Heavily Peated
Like most whisky drinkers, I am always looking to try something new. But of course, when one is out and about, that is not always an option, so we all have our go-tos. For me, my go-to of go-tos is Bruichladdich’s Port Charlotte 10 Heavily Peated.
And that’s the baseline Port Charlotte. The Cask Exploration Series takes that great Port Charlotte smokiness and adds a whole other level of complexity to it. Perhaps my all-time favorite in the Cask Exploration Series is the SC:01 2012. SC stands for Sauternes Cask, and the SC:01 is a vatting of nine-year-old whisky initially aged in sherry and American whiskey casks and finished in Sauternes casks.
That finish is why this bottle is perfect for beating the heat.
Sauternes wine, for those not versed in the vagaries of all the wine-cask finishes that have hit the market, is a sweet wine from Bordeaux made from sémillon, sauvignon blanc, and muscadelle grapes infested with the fungus Botrytis cinerea, aka “noble rot”, concentrating sugars and thus resulting in an incredible sweet wine.
The SC:01 captures some of the sweetness of the Sauternes formerly held in the cask. The sweetness cuts against the peat, taking that already great Port Charlotte balance and adding another element to it for an extraordinarily complex sweet and smoky whisky. Expect peach, dried apricots, and other stone fruit mixed with smoke on the nose, followed by vanilla, ginger, honey, and, of course, peat on the palate. The finish is long and chocolatey.
Douglas Laing’s Rock Island Blended Malt
Alas, the Port Charlotte SC:01 has been out for a little while now, and while it is still available for not that much more than when it came out, it might take a little looking. So our second bottling is a little more accessible.
Rock Island (formerly Rock Oyster) is part of Douglas Laing’s Remarkable Regional Malts series, which aims to deliver the essence of each of Scotland’s recognized whisky regions: the Highlands, Lowlands, Speyside, Campbeltown, and Islay. Although officially part of the Highlands whisky region, the Islands off Scotland’s coast (excluding Islay) are frequently considered their own category due to their own unique whisky characteristics, as might be expected from their differing geography. For Rock Island, Douglas Laing groups the Islands (specifically those islands of Arran, Jurra, and Orkney) with Islay for the quintessential island malt.
Not being strictly Islay, Rock Island’s peat is a little lighter and not so in your face as Scotland’s famous peat-forward region. This makes it a perfect summer sipper, all the greatness of peat without knocking you out. On the nose you’ll find salinity (that maritime influence) along with some fruity notes and only very light peat. The smoke shows more in the palate, along with honey and black pepper, continuing into a salt and pepper finish.
COCKTAILS
Smoky Rusty Nail
My family visited Scotland for the holidays in 2019. Our last night there my wife and I decided to have one final drink at the hotel bar. I ordered a Signatory bottling of Imperial, and she opted for a cocktail, this cocktail, a Smoky Rusty Nail. I will always remember the bartender saying that he could make it for her as described on the menu, or he could mix it for her the “right way” with a different peated whisky, Ardbeg 10.
We’ve been making the cocktail ever since, just as he said. Sure, you can substitute another peated whisky, but why? It’s perfect as is.
1 ounces Ardbeg 10
1 ounces Monkey Shoulder
1 ounces Drambuie liqueur
Ice
Put 3 or 4 ice cubes in a rocks glass. Add the Ardbeg, Monkey Shoulder, and Drambuie, gently stir. Enjoy!
Smoky Old Fashioned
Don’t confuse this cocktail with a Smoked Old Fashioned, in which literal smoke floats in the glass above the drink, thus infusing a smoke flavor. That having been said, I bet you can see where the Smoky Old Fashioned is going–take a classic Old Fashioned recipe and swap out the bourbon for peat.
0.5 ounces simple syrup
3 dashes Angostura bitters
2 ounces Lagavulin 16
Orange twist
