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Best smoky whiskies: compare smoke styles

Smoky whiskies grouped by style, from gentle island smoke to Islay's most heavily peated malts, with what ppm does and doesn't tell you, at UK prices.

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There is no single smokiest-and-best whisky, because smoke comes in styles. For gentle smoke, start with Talisker 10 Year Old or Bowmore 12 Year Old. For heavy Islay peat, Ardbeg 10 Year Old, Laphroaig Quarter Cask and Lagavulin 16 Year Old are the reference points. For the most heavily peated malt made in Scotland, look at Bruichladdich’s Octomore releases. The sections below group the bottles by style.

Where the smoke comes from

Smoke in whisky comes from peat, burned in the kiln that dries malted barley. The smoke leaves phenols on the grain, and some survive distilling and maturation. Distillers state peating as ppm (phenol parts per million) measured in the malt, not in the bottled whisky. Distillation and years in the cask both reduce it, so two whiskies made from the same malt can taste very different. Whiskipedia explains how peat is used and lists typical ppm by distillery.

Islay and smoke are not the same thing. Bunnahabhain and most Bruichladdich bottlings are unpeated, and several mainland and island distilleries make peated whisky.

How heavily peated is the malt, in phenol parts per million measured on the malted barley, from published figures. Bowmore 25 to 30 ppm. Lagavulin usually given as 35 to 38 ppm, depending on the source. Bunnahabhain's peated spirit, about a third of its production, 35 to 45 ppm; its core range is unpeated. Port Charlotte 40 ppm. Laphroaig 45 to 50 ppm for the malt from its own floors, about a fifth of its needs. Ardbeg 50 to 55 ppm. Torabhaig Legacy Series 77 to 78.4 ppm. Octomore 80 to over 300 ppm, depending on the release; Octomore 08.3 measured 309.1 ppm. The figure is measured before mashing, distillation and maturation, so it is not the smoke in the glass.

Gentle smoke

These use moderately peated malt or balance the smoke with other flavours. They are the usual starting points.

Talisker 10 Year Old: £39.15 at Master of Malt. A single malt from the Isle of Skye at 45.8% ABV. Talisker’s malt is commonly cited at about 18 to 25 ppm.

Bowmore 12 Year Old: currently unavailable. An Islay single malt at 40% ABV. Bowmore still malts part of its own barley on traditional floor maltings, and its malt is commonly cited at about 25 ppm.

Caol Ila 12 Year Old: £49.95 at Hard To Find Whisky. An Islay single malt at 43% ABV. Caol Ila is Islay’s largest distillery, and much of its spirit goes into blends.

anCnoc 10 Year Old Peated: £44.00 at Master of Malt. A peated Highland single malt from Knockdhu, a distillery best known for unpeated whisky.

Heavy Islay smoke

These are the peated malts most people mean by “Islay whisky”: heavily peated spirit, usually matured mostly in ex-bourbon casks.

Ardbeg 10 Year Old: £40.52 at Master of Malt. Bottled at 46% ABV and non-chill-filtered. Ardbeg’s malt is commonly cited at 50 to 55 ppm.

Laphroaig Quarter Cask: £47.00 at The Whisky Shop. No age statement (NAS), 48% ABV. After ex-bourbon barrels it goes into quarter casks of about 125 litres. A small cask puts more of the whisky in contact with the wood, so the cask works faster. Laphroaig floor-malts about a fifth of what it uses on site; published figures for its malt range from about 40 to 60 ppm.

Lagavulin 16 Year Old: £72.95 at Master of Malt. A 16-year-old Islay single malt at 43% ABV. Lagavulin’s usual malt specification is given as 35 to 38 ppm, depending on the source.

Kilchoman Machir Bay: £44.25 at Master of Malt. A young NAS single malt at 46% ABV from Kilchoman, a farm distillery founded on Islay in 2005.

Port Charlotte 10 Year Old: £54.95 at Hard To Find Whisky. Bruichladdich’s heavily peated range, bottled at 50% ABV. Bruichladdich states 40 ppm for its Port Charlotte malt.

The most heavily peated

These are bottled stronger, so add water to taste.

Ardbeg Corryvreckan: £74.95 at Hard To Find Whisky. NAS, 57.1% ABV, matured in ex-bourbon and new French oak casks.

Ardbeg Uigeadail: currently unavailable. NAS, 54.2% ABV, a vatting of ex-bourbon and sherry-cask whisky.

Octomore 15.1: £138.50 at Master of Malt. Bruichladdich’s super-heavily peated series. Each Octomore release states its own ppm on the label, so check the figure for the edition you buy.

Smoke with sherry-cask sweetness

A sherry cask or Pedro Ximénez (PX) cask adds dried fruit and sweetness to peated spirit, which some drinkers find a gentler way in. See the sherry-cask guide for what those casks do.

Ardbeg An Oa: £45.70 at Master of Malt. NAS, 46.6% ABV, made from whisky aged in PX casks, charred virgin oak and first-fill bourbon casks.

Bowmore 15 Year Old: £73.95 at Master of Malt. 43% ABV, with its final years in oloroso sherry casks.

Laphroaig 10 Year Old Sherry Oak Finish: £49.95 at Hard To Find Whisky. Laphroaig 10 finished in sherry casks and bottled at 48% ABV.

Smoke from outside Islay

Ledaig 10 Year Old: £39.50 at Master of Malt. The peated malt from Tobermory distillery on Mull, at 46.3% ABV. Ledaig’s malt is commonly cited at 30 to 40 ppm.

Connemara Peated Single Malt: £33.45 at Master of Malt. A peated Irish single malt at 40% ABV, made at Cooley distillery, and one of the few peated Irish whiskeys.

Compass Box The Peat Monster: £51.12 at Master of Malt. A blended malt at 46% ABV, built from peated Islay and other malts.

For every peated bottle on the site, see peated whisky or the narrower heavily peated list.

The whisky flavour map below places every in-stock bottle we can tag by smoke and cask, so you can see where these styles sit on the shelf.

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Sources and review

Questions

What is the smokiest whisky?
On published malt figures, Bruichladdich’s Octomore series is the most heavily peated Scotch: each release states its own malt figure, for example 108.2 ppm for Octomore 15.1 and 307.2 ppm for 15.3. Core Islay malts are far lower: Ardbeg’s malt is commonly cited at 50 to 55 ppm, Laphroaig’s at about 40 to 60 ppm depending on the source, and Lagavulin’s at about 36 ppm. Ppm is measured in the malt before distilling, so it is not a measure of smoke in the glass (Whiskipedia on phenols).
Is peat the same as smoke?
No. Peat is a fuel: partly decayed bog vegetation that is cut and dried. Burning it in the kiln that dries malted barley coats the grain with smoky phenols. Distillation and maturation remove a large share of those phenols, so a whisky’s smoke depends on the stills and casks as well as the malt (Whiskipedia on peat).
Are all smoky whiskies from Islay?
No. Talisker (Skye) and Ledaig (Tobermory, Mull) are peated island malts, Ardmore and anCnoc Peated come from the Highlands and Connemara is a peated Irish single malt. Islay also makes unpeated whisky: Bunnahabhain 12 Year Old is unpeated.

About the author

John Fegan

· Editor

Hailing from the land of haggis and deep-fried Mars bars, John was always going to find his way to whisky. He has run Uisge Beatha since 2015 and Whiskipedia.com since 2020.