Big Peat was launched by Douglas Laing in 2009, conceived by Fred Laing as a permanent vatting of malts from the peated south of Islay. The label depicts the eponymous fisherman, weather-beaten and unbothered, and the liquid inside is exactly as advertised — peat, and plenty of it.
The recipe is the worst-kept secret in independent bottling: Ardbeg, Caol Ila, Bowmore and a sliver of the closed Port Ellen distillery, vatted at 46% without chill filtration or colouring. That Port Ellen component, however small, lends the bottling a curious historical weight; Douglas Laing has been holding casks since the distillery's silent year of 1983.
Bottled as a small-batch product, Big Peat has become the firm's flagship and arguably the most successful Islay blended malt on the market, regularly racking up awards at the World Whiskies Awards and ISC. It is the kind of dram that won the family company a new generation of admirers after Stewart and Fred Laing split the old Douglas Laing & Co. business in 2013, with Fred and daughter Cara retaining the Big Peat brand.
For all the marketing exuberance, the whisky itself is honest. It is smoky without being theatrical, salty without being austere, and at 46% strength it carries its weight cleanly. A reliable Islay reference, and a useful introduction for anyone unsure whether they like peat — by the end of the glass, they usually do.
