Teaninich 12 year old 2011 SMWS 59.74

(Teaninich cluster homepage)

On Monday I stated "Teaninich uses unpeated malt", so here's a peated Teaninich. Really, there's no better way to start a cluster than by introducing a whisky unrepresentative of the distillery. It's possible that Teaninich distillery occasionally does peated runs depending on Diageo's blends' needs. There's also a chance that this single malt was aged in a cask that had previously held peated whisky. I just hope it's not a one-dimensional generic peaty beast. Here it goes!

Distillery: Teaninich

Ownership: Diageo
Region: Northern-ish Highlands
Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Age: 12 years old (11 Jan 2011 - 2023)
Maturation: first-fill bourbon hogshead
Cask number: 59.74, "For Fawkes' sakes"
Outturn: 279 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 54.7%
(from a bottle split)

NEAT

The nose's peat arrives quietly with minor notes of rubber tubing and charcoal. Dried apricots, peach skin, and sweaty socks are a bit louder, with vanilla and roses in the background. There are some sniffs that don't read peated at all. The palate is a different story. It's full of wood smoke, earthiness, and herbal bitterness. Rock candy, dried peach slices, and serrano chiles provide some depth. The wood smoke carries into the less-sweet finish, which also offers a few orange moments.

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or 1½ tsp of water per 30mL whisky

Some actual smoke sneaks into the nose, but doesn't interrupt the peaches, flowers, barley, and cherry lollipops. The herbal bitterness intensifies on the palate, while the earth and smoke ease back. The sweetness has vanished, and there's a little bit of eucalyptus in the background. It finishes with chipotle peppers and lemon bubblegum.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

I think this was fashioned with actual peated malt. This isn't Islay-esque, instead it seems like a different type of peat (from the Highlands?) was used to dry the barley. It offers an earthy, dry smoke which could be quite nice with the right amount of fruit. The palate works better when neat, but I enjoy the nose better once the whisky is diluted. It reads a bit young, and I'd be curious to try a cask like this with 5-10 more years on it, but I do appreciate that this whisky is not oak-focused at 12 years old. Hopefully more peaty Teaninichs find their way into indie bottlers' hands.

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - 88€ was its original SMWS price
Rating - 82