First Look: Smokehead

It is a great time to be a peat-freak. The popularity of the bold and smokey malts has lead producers to create an ever increasing variety of expressions for us to enjoy. We're seeing new heavily peated, some say over-peated expressions from many distilleries that are coming to us very young. That coupled with new peaty blends and blended malts and there is a flood of new tastes to explore.

The latest Islay to cross my desk is Smokehead. This one, from Ian Macleod Distillers has just barely made it to US shores and apparently is flying off store shelves. It bills itself as an Islay single malt Scotch whisky without an age statement or distiller, but don't let that fool you, this is a bottle worth having. I finally got a taste of this new immigrant this week, and you can too at Whiskies of the World on March 27th.

Smokehead is bold and bright with a good body. It has a rich warm nose with peat smoke coming through right away. Smoke gives way to spices and floral notes. sweet honey and campfires dance across your palate. There's a brash youthful aggression that adds yet another layer to this great whisky. The wood notes are not as strong as the rich peaty flavors, but it is well balanced with a long finish that ends in smoke. This is definitely one for us peat freaks.

There are a lot of words on the bottle that are confirmed attributes of this whisky. The one that I want to add is this: Good!