Just to clarify a couple of points on phenols. Laphroaig is peated to a minimum of 50ppm and Ardbeg to 45ppm and the only mainland malt to have always peated its whisky is Ardmore, all the others distilleries campaign peated malt for a number of weeks.
To set the cat among the pigeons is the fact that 2/3rds of all phenols are lost in distillation so it would be better for the distilleries to talk about the amount of phenols in the bottle. Quite honestly 2/3rds of 60 or 50 or 40ppm means that there is very little difference in the bottle especially when the phenol flavour softens with age. It would be far better to talk about the peat infuence as this is more pertinent and important to the flavour rather than get stuck on who's got the highest ppm.
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