Big Peat Christmas 2013 A Real Cracker (54.9%, Douglas Laing, 14400 bottles, 2013)

• ABV: 54.9%
• Age: NAS
• Bottling: Douglas Laing, Remarkable Regional Malts, Christmas 2013 Edition
• Category: Blended scotch whisky
• Cost: £46.50
• Origin: n/a
• Vintage: undeclared

What they say

Big Peat is home for the holidays once more, bringing along his Santa’s sack full of blended malt Islay whisky, bottled at cask strength. Merry Christmas! It’s “a real cracker”!

What I say

Douglas Laing’s Islay blend highlighting specific distilleries on the label! This is the Christmas 2013 Edition.

My tasting notes:

• Appearance: Very light champagne gold (2/20), quick, large tears and loose thick legs.
• Nose: Bonfires and rubber tyres or tyre fires? a little seaside fish and chips with salt and vinegar, oysters with cider vinegar, abrasive, briny, cereal malt, and new peat smoke, vanilla slice pastries and nutty almond and praline.
• Taste: Peaty, nutty, almond milk with white pepper, malty, rich, chewy, cake-y and doughy, heavy pastry, sweet honey, barley malt, tar, germolene, TCP, mint/menthol, char/burnt wood and nature (bonfire)
• Finish: Long, peaty, chalky, menthol and a touch rubbery.

Overall

Maybe not as pleasing as (the previously sampled 2014 edition) but still a beast of a dram that politely punches your face in.

Score 85/100

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