Peat Monsters: Right of passage?

@scippio, these different types of whiskies give different palates to appreciate. I myself had to overcome a bit of American whisky snobbery in order to grow to love the malts. Starting with bourbons and ryes as my base (I don't even post online several dozen of the scores of bourbons I have in my physical 'cabinet') I first learned a great appreciation of the "flavouring grain" flavours of rye and wheat. By comparison barley is completely weak and boring (and as for corn, as far as I am concerned, one, and here I mean "I", can almost never taste corn, unless it is undiluted new-make). Out of habit and familiarity I was looking primarily to the grain and new wood flavours for my enjoyment. At first, brine, peat-smoke, and bitterness all seemed strange and unpleasant, and barley just seemed to be a weak excuse on which to base a whisky. In time I learned a new set of gustatory and olfactory aesthetic paramaters with which to work, not better or worse, but simply different. I love the malts passionately now, and have found a few with extremely lovely flavours of the grain. I like peat, smoke, brine, even bitterness, when I have the corresponding state of mind or mood to indulge them. It is to me like choosing what I want to eat for dinner: sometimes I want chicken, sometimes beef, sometimes fish. They all have their attractions.

@Victor Terrific analogy: different whisk(e)ys with what to eat for dinner. Thanks for offering that.

@two-bit-cowboy, I also think that the appreciation of highly flavoured hard spirits, and most particularly whisky, is the most concentrated, pure, and sophisticated arena in which to study and refine the sense of taste, which includes the accompanying olfactory impressions. 1/3 oz of a good whisky has more flavours to appreciate and yields longer lasting impressions than chomping on mouthfulls of haute cuisine. Of course, I like and indulge in the haute cuisine too. And, as you well know, they are very good together.

I hate olives and have been blasted for not understanding them by olive-breathed snobs. I'm perfectly happy living a life without olives. My pizzas and martinis are just fine without them.

@Victor Right you are. However, just as IainVH has put the bright light on those who would have us believe you don't really appreciate whisky if you don't like peat, there are those who would suggest enjoying whisky with a meal is blasphemy. Poor souls.

@scippio Thanks for your response and for raising the very valid point of Scotch to others snobbery. I tend to agree that the peated/unpeated question is not the only one to be considered. I suppose to many whisky comes from Scotland and anything that comes from elsewhere is just a pale (or darker) imitation. Thankfully I have never thought this way, even before I became seriously interested in whisky I realised that there are countless quality drams beyond the shores of Scotalnd. I enjoy the fact that my whisky cabinet now shows a wide variety of whiskies from several countries rather than the wildly know scotches and the Jack Daniels that used to be there alone. Perhaps in a way this makes me a certain kind of whisky shob myself! Cheers.

@Wodha I hate olives as well.........and Martini for that matter! Pizza is yummy though, as my waistline testifys! Thanks for your point. Cheers.

@Maude I'll take your advice and try in time one or more of the less heavily peated drams you suggest. May leave it a while to hopefully let my palate improve. This will also allow me time to sample some of the many unpeated whiskies I have my eye on.

@AboutChoice Thank you your very detailed and informative post. The main point I take from it is that it is certainly a good idea to join a whisky tasting club or group as this will allow we to not only taste a lot wider variety of drams and draw on the knowledge and experience of others in the group. I'd not really considered the effects of food and other drinks on whisky tasting but when you do consider it, it is fairly obvious. Thanks very much for the pointer.

Hmm, am potentially guilty of having used the phrases ‘beginners dram’, ‘good introduction to whisky’, and ‘for people who don’t like whisky’, although I don't think I meant them in the way suggested here.

If someone tells me they don't like whisky then what I like to do is show them that there's a magnificent taste continuum to be experienced. I'm assuming that they've tried some corrosive supermarket blends as teenagers, so to open their minds to whisky being capable of niceness I'll pick something less "middle of the road". If they've specifically also mentioned being given a smoky mediciney cup of awfulness to try, then that suggests that a good place to "start" is at the spicy, custardy, light end/corner of things.

You don't normally teach people the alphabet by starting with "X", "Z", or "Q", but that doesn't make "A", "B" and "C" any less useful letters.

Once you've established that whisky's more than just what they're expecting then the eyes have been opened and you're on your way.

One useful(ish) question I ask newcomers to the whisky thing is whether they like Lapsang Souchong tea - if their eyes light up then it's like a green light to steer them towards Ardbegs & Lagavulins & whatnot.

Not sure about snobbery or elitism - it's just whether you like it or not. In order to establish whether you like it, you've got to try it.

Also, don't fall into the trap of lumping all the "peat monsters" together either - as with any other whisky there's loads going on in there (usually), and when my girlfriend and I were at Whisky Live in Paris recently though she turned her nose up at a sniff of Ardbeg Alligator, she tried Port Askaig Harbour 19yo and loved it.

Rite of Passage? I genuinely don't think so. Just statistically a "less-good starting point".

I think one of the major issues people haven't seemed to bring up yet is this: Are you a whisky drinker? Or are you a connoisseur? One is not BETTER than the other... they are drinking for different reasons.

As a whisky drinker, why would you EVER drink something you didn't find appealing??? The reason you are drinking is to enjoy a delicious beverage. Sometimes we all need to sit down with something that is delicious and easy drinking.

As a connoisseur, it isn't necessarily ABOUT enjoyment. When a serious connoisseur sits down to a dram, I think the question is less about, "do I like this" and more about "What do I taste/smell/feel"

Those who want to explore flavour palates may try the peat at first and be turned off by it... but in the effort to expand horizons and understand this strange flavour, they continue drinking it and experiencing it... searching for different focus points. Different flavours and smells etc...

Ultimately the point I'm making is, for some of us, it isn't really about enjoyment of flavour sometimes. It is about an experience of gastronomy in the form of whisky. The enjoyment comes out of enjoying the EXPERIENCE of these new and fascinating flavours.

Drink what you like and don't be sorry. The subtlety to be found in non explosive drams is endless. Perhaps if you at some point get bored and want to be challenged you will come back to these peaty malts. If not... that is 100% okay. You are drinking for you. There will always be snooty would be know it alls.

@OCeallaigh, you make a very good point that the experience of the connoisseur may be enjoyable by virtue of being 'interesting' (my word of choice) apart from being related to easily enjoyable pleasure drinking. It is precisely for this reason that I take a strong interest in becoming acquainted with the un-aged whisk(e)ys. They are more difficult of access, usually, than whiskies including wood flavours and wood-mellowing. But the unaged whiskies do generate interesting and educational experiences. By your criteria I would call myself BOTH a connoisseur AND a whisky drinker. At any given time the emphasis may be more upon one than the other.

@Victor Yes, we all like to sit down and drink one of our old favourites from time to time for no reason other than... it's good!

At this point in the thread I'll put out there that I find "value" in just about anything called "whisk(e)y". There's a bunch I'd not take to the proverbial desert island but I will buy them, try them, try them again and try to suss out why some folks took the time to make them in the first place. Excellent example: Buffalo Trace Mash #4. Dear God, what the hell were they thinking offering this to consumers. But now, after touring distilleries on Islay I need to revisit the Mash #4 and see if my original take is correct.

@OCeallaigh I am obviously a drinker rather than a connosr as i agree totally that continuing to drink something that you just don't like is completely mad as far as I'm concerned. Although i have throughly enjoyed learning more about whiskies i have started to analise the beverage intently to try and improve my appreciation of the smell, taste, finish etc and ask whats that smell?, can i taste raisin or cherry? How long is the finish, does it have good legs? When at times all thats needed is to enjoy the drink what what it is regardless of any of these things..

@jasonbstanding Thanks for your very good points. Although I still feel that it is unlikely that I will ever find the peat monsters 'yummy' for want of a better phrase, I do agree that jumping straight into them was not a good starting point. Perhaps working up to the monsters by way of a Bowmore, Tallisker or Black bottle may educate my palate and increase my appreciation slowly. However I honestly think that I will reach a certain point in my peat journey where i say 'ok thats as far as i go' any further will be a step too far and I'll still be quite a distance away from the most peated Ardbeg or Laphroig. Cheers.

@lainVH, I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this yet, but this thought just occurred to me. I sometimes find that even a little peat/smoke in a whisky adds some "substance" to it, so as to make it more interesting. You might try some whiskies that contain just a small amount of peat/smoke, and in which peat/smoke is NOT the main idea. Highland Park 12 is one such whisky, and is considered an "all rounder" by many. There are also numerous blends that have had peated whiskies blended into the background, that are quite nice and inoffenseive. Some of these are Johnnie Walker Black Label 12, Chivas Regal 12, Famous Grouse (minimal smoke), and Teachers (more smoke). Many of these also are available in smallers bottles. Other Connosrs may offer additional ideas. If you wind up trying any, let us know how it went !
BTW, you're looking younger every day ... must be the whisky :-)

@IainVH You're very welcome. As you're in the UK, another useful tool for trying whisky (if you haven't already discovered this) is Master of Malt's "Drinks by the Dram": www.masterofmalt.com/samples/

Being able to taste without investing in an entire bottle has helped me really explore the flavour spectrum.

@jasonbstanding Thanks for another great tip. You can read others reviews til you're blue in the face but you never really know whether you'll like a whisky until you taste it for yourself and paying £40/£50/£60 upwards for a full sized bottle is a little bit off putting if you then hate the whisky you've bought. Maybe a part used whisky exchange would be a good idea.....maybe not :) I'll have a look at the web site you mentioned. Cheers.