Earthy Flavor

floid · July 19 2016 at 3:15PM

Fairly new to scotch tasting and even newer to peated scotch. The peated scotch I have tried thus far include HP 12, Laphroaig 10, Bowmore 12 and Bowmore Small Batch. Out of these, I enjoyed an earthy peat flavor in the Bowmore where the Laphroaig was much more smokey. I have learned a lot reading and using the whisky database tool, but haven't been able to differentiate what it might be in the Bowmore vs others that gives it the earthy notes.

On my list to try are Talisker, Coal Ila and Lagavulin (all more expensive in my area so I was starting at the lower price point). Do any of these, or some other suggestion, have the more earthy characteristic?

horst_s_2 · July 22 2016 at 1:42PM

I find earthy flavors very difficult to describe. Some people say, that the 16yo Jura has an earthy flavor. But what earth do they mean? Sandy, fowly, or just a little bit rotten?

I think, that you mean the dark wooden part (not the dark fruity one) of the Sherry casks in which the Bowmore matured.

floid · July 28 2016 at 5:41PM

Very true, earthy is a hard flavor to describe. Upon retrying and thinking about it a better description may have been a damp peat (vegetative, grassy/mulchy) versus a smoked peat flavor. This could be a mix of the sherry and lower peat level which I am mixing together as you suggested. There is a rotten finish I get from it at times which isn't as pleasant.