Since 2011, Douglas Laing has marked the festive season by releasing Big Peat at cask strength — the same vatting of southern Islay malts (Ardbeg, Caol Ila, Bowmore and the vanishing Port Ellen) bottled without water and without apology. Each year's edition carries its own ABV depending on the casks chosen, and figures have ranged across the mid-fifties.
The Christmas Edition has become something of a collector's tradition. Stocks are limited, the labels carry seasonal artwork featuring the familiar fisherman, and the bottlings tend to disappear before Hogmanay. Reviews from Jim Murray and Serge Valentin at Whiskyfun have been consistently warm over the years, and the series has won its share of medals.
What you get for the festive premium is the regular Big Peat profile turned up: more oil, more salt, more smoke, more presence. Adding a few drops of water tames the heat without dulling the peat, which is precisely the point of a cask-strength bottling.
For those who already know and like the standard expression, the Christmas Edition is the natural next step — the same recipe, the same maritime DNA, the same Islay fisherman, but with the volume control set somewhere closer to eleven. A useful Christmas gift for the peat-inclined, and one of the more consistently rewarding limited annual releases on the independent scene.
