Smoke lovers, gather round. Here’s our selection of the best 10 premium smoky whiskies you can buy right now.
We’ve gone beyond just the legendary Islay drams to bold experiments from Japan and beyond to find ten whiskies that demand your attention.
Don’t forget, right now you can also purchase a whole Peaty Whisky Advent Calendar for the run-up to Christmas ‘25!
Best 10 premium smoky whiskies
Here’s our pick for the best 10 premium smoky whiskies
Ardbeg An Oa
Since 2017, Ardbeg An Oa has comprised at least three different cask types (bourbon, PX, and new charred) that are combined in a large vat of new French oak. In this large “Gathering Vat”, the whisky mingles for at least three months, developing and marrying it together. The vat is never fully emptied, solera-style, so there’s a continuity throughout. Beautiful stuff.
Seaweed & Aeons & Digging & Fire & Cask Strength 18 Year Old (Batch 03)
Heavily peated whisky that spent 18 years maturing before it was bottled up at cask strength. Need any more convincing? A generous portion of the whisky is sherry cask matured, imparting decadent layers of poached stone fruits and candied nuts to the dense, bold peat smoke and meaty malt at its core.
Yoichi 10 Year Old
Incredibly elegant, rewarding whisky made from a combination of peated and unpeated single malt, Yoichi 10 Year Old is worth the investment. It sings with notes of vanilla, fruit, some peat smoke, and a salty edge.
Port Ellen 35 Year Old 1983 Single Cask (Master of Malt)
If you really want to go for the top shelf, then Port Ellen single malt is for you. We liked this one so much, we had to have it for ourselves. It was produced in 1983, the Islay distillery’s final year of operation, and spent the following 35 years maturing in a single refill barrel to preserve all that distillery character.
Laphroaig Elements 3.0 – born from a fiery accident
Laphroaig Elements 3.0
Elements 3.0 was inspired by a kiln fire that burned longer and hotter than usual, altering the malt resting just above it. American oak bourbon casks allow the intense smoke and unexpected distillation variables to settle into something remarkable.
Glen Scotia 21 Year Old
A single malt Scotch whisky matured in a combination of refill bourbon barrels and refill American oak hogsheads before a six-month finish in first-fill oloroso sherry casks. It was bottled at 46% ABV with natural colour and is non-chill filtered. It’s classic Glen Scotia and all the better for it.
Ledaig 18 Year Old
One of the most comprehensive pieces of evidence you will ever find that Islay isn’t the only place to get your hands on splendidly peaty whisky. Ledaig 18 malt coughs up all the hearty phenols your heart desires among waves of sherry-soaked fruit, spice, and pepperiness.
Octomore 16.3
Single-estate Concerto barley grown on Octomore Farm was peated to 189.5ppm to create Octomore 16.3. When you taste this single malt, the impact of its three casks (bourbon, Pedro Ximénez, and Sauternes) is obvious, none more so than the latter, which gives it a rich, luscious sweetness.
The English Chapter 18 is a very fine whisky; we rated it highly
The English Chapter 18 18th Anniversary Release
This complex commemorative release blends single malts aged between 10 and 18 years, drawn from bourbon, sherry, and new oak casks. It also includes both unpeated and lightly peated spirit, giving it a sweet, smoky tinge.
Cù Bòcan 15 Year Old
Cù Bòcan peated whisky meets decadent sherry casks. The peat is subtly here, but beautifully poised among all the dried fruit and aromatic spice.
