Organic Whisky

I know of the following: Springbank 1992, 7 Years Old, Da Mhile Organic (46%, sherry cask, 1000 bottles) Benromach Organic Benromach Organic Special Edition (peated) Bruichladdich Organic 2003

Watch out if you're looking for the Da Mhile since there is also a Da Mhile grain whisky and a Da Mhile blend. Some reading material: www.organicwhisky.com whiskymag.com/whisky/brand/… www.bruichladdich.com/organic.htm bruichladdich.com/latestnewsarticles/… bruichladdich.com/trade/…

Interesting Laddie quotes: "Over 1000 tons of Scottish-grown organic barley is now grown for us annually on 8 different Scottish farms, that's 50% of our current total annual requirement" and "There will be annual organic distillations..." so I guess we will be seeing more organic expressions from them in the future. There's also quite some marketing talk about this being an opportunity to experience what 19th century whisky tasted like etc. To be taken with a (huge) grain of salt if you ask me. Personally I think the 2003 Organic is a bit too young, although I quite enjoy it as an aperitif. I wouldn't buy it again, especially considering its price. Maybe if they release a 10yo in 2013...

Benromach on the other hand has taken the concept a step further (if I'm not mistaken) and aged their spirit in virgin oak casks, as this will keep it more 'pure' (can't find back my source right away but I even seem to remember they used wood from oak trees that have not been treated with chemicals etc.). The fact that the casks are virgin probably has a large influence on the flavor development (much more than the influence of the barley being organic I guess?). I've only tried the peated "special edition" so far which was quite good although a bit one-dimensional, i.e. very smoky, a nice BBQ kind of smoke, but not much else (but that could be me, as I'm just starting to learn to discover and distinguish flavors).

So all in all I can't really answer your question whether the organic nature of the barley impacts the flavour... I guess to really find out you would have to compare an organic one to a non-organic one from the same distillery, same vintage, same cask type etc. or in other words my guess is that there a lot of other factors that have a bigger influence than the barley being organic or not.

Thanks for the info @charlie7 and welcome to the site..

from the Koval Distillery in Chicago: www.lionspridewhiskey.com