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Earthiest Whiskies?

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@JasonHambrey
JasonHambrey started a discussion

I recently tried (and love) a bottle of Masterson's 10 Year Old Straight Barley Whiskey, made with 100% unmalted barley. I found it to be incredibly earthy, and I love earthy flavours - so I am curious - what are the earthiest whiskies you've had, peated or unpeated?

9 years ago

6 replies

@Ol_Jas
Ol_Jas replied

McCarthy's peated whisky. Whenever it crosses my mind, the first label I put on it is "mud." Some people really like it, but for me it had none of the clean zip that makes peated Islay whisky so great. (I had a single bottle a couple years ago. I hear the batches vary a lot, so who knows what today's bottles are like. Not me.)

I've only had a single glass of Ledaig 10, but that seemed pretty earthy too. A peat that tasted dark and deep and a bit off-putting.

And if "farmy" stuff qualifies as earthy, then I"ll also toss out Edradour Ballechin, Connemara Turf Mor, and Brora. I haven't had these, so it's just their reputations I'm drawing on. (Ballechin #3 and Turf Mor are currently in my stash, but unopened. Brora is unlikely to ever cross my bar.)

9 years ago 0

@Ol_Jas
Ol_Jas replied

If you're will to stray from whisky, you could also try some mezcal. I worked through a bottle of Del Maguey Chichicapa mezcal this past year based on recommendations that it would appeal to fans is Islay whisky. I actually thought it was borderline gross, but I can't deny that it's earthy. Vegetal. Very "green" in my mind's eye.

After I gave up on trying to like it on its own, I ended up knocking back the second half of the bottle over ice with lots of lemon juice, to the glorification of many a meal of homemade tacos. Seriously—that was pretty tasty.

9 years ago 0

@JasonHambrey
JasonHambrey replied

@OlJas interesting - I have never tried (or seen) McCarthy's (I'm in Canada). Turf Mor was interesting - I only had a touch of that, though, and didn't love it. Mezcal is hard to come by - but I really like it (well, the good stuff - some of it is junk). The one bottle I had, and liked, was Leyenda Tlacuache.

I find Heaven Hill bourbons often have a very nice earthiness to them - but it isn't that big or bold. Peated whiskies often have various levels (like Springbank); but I am not that experienced in peated single malts

9 years ago 0

@Ol_Jas
Ol_Jas replied

@JasonHambrey, you could also try searching that Whisky Suggest thing that we recently had a thread about. It gives lots of results for "earthy," though most of them appear to just be peaty:

whiskysuggest.com/search/…


That McCarthy's is probably the earthiest thing I've had. You might want to look up the reviews and try to source some up by you if it sounds up your alley. Some folks on Connosr (especially Wodha, as a recall) really swear by it. I just saw it on my local shelf yesterday for $40 USD, so it's a bargain if it does the trick for you. I'm pretty sure I've seen that it's three years old.

9 years ago 0

@Frost
Frost replied

Edradour seems to draw more polarising opinions than Jura ! However, these farmy and earthy notes are getting me curious.

9 years ago 0

@Ol_Jas
Ol_Jas replied

Lost Spirits Leviathan. I got my bottle from K&L yesterday and had one glass last night. It's dark, murky, muddy, and rather like the McCarthy's peated single malt. In short, it's gross. But earthy!

9 years ago 0