Smokehead Islay Single Malt

One of the best things about the holiday period, I have newly discovered, is the availability of distillery miniature tasting packs, or rather, the post holidays sales price. I managed to pick up a three pack of Smokeheads for a meagre AUD$20. A nice cheap little foray into mysterious (*cough* Caol Ila *cough*) Islay sourced peated malts. I’m quite keen to revisit the Rum Rebel, which I had some time ago, but I have no expectations of the other two in the box and am happy to go along for the ride here. N: A slightly oily arrival with pleasantly phenolic and maritime (wet seaweed and brine) character. The peat is undeniable and permeates everything with a strong rubber and lesser ashy wood smoke profile. Softer elements of malt are here as buttered, toasted brioche. The longer I give this the more a light apple juice sweetness comes out. Nothing here smacks me about as you may be led to believe with packaging adjectives like ‘monstrous’, rather this is actually quite restrained and enjoyable. P: A soft and juicy arrival with good body. There is a rapid development of lightly honied maltiness that then gets flooded wth a strongly ashy (and perhaps mineralic?) smoke, a medicinal and slightly peppery to chilli like envelope comes in towards the end. A simple progression, but not uninteresting. The juicy sweetness, albeit generic, is refreshing against the somewhat one dimensional smoke if you concentrate on it. The brininess front he nose is just about here but it gets interrupted by a late spirit presence that somewhat detracts from the overall palate. F: Long. Ashy, briny and a little mineralic, plenty of chilli spice. Ok ok ok, I’m not disappointed. It would be unreasonable to expect much from an almost novelty branded NAS mystery malt at an aggressively low price for my Australian market; but you get plenty. Enjoyable nose, reasonable but slightly young palate, good texture, and a lasting finish. The official score here of 69 is unwarranted, the average user score seems to come out at a reasonable conclusion. An acceptable, perfectly enjoyable, no nonsense peat focused dram. A good introduction to Islay; probably not. But, a good one for fans of smokey cocktails or when you don’t want to think about your smoky pour, absolutely. I am now reminded though that JW Double Black exists for this exact purpose (in my books), and its a touch cheaper, a little more interesting, and probably my preferred option. Distiller whisky taste #158 [Pictured here with a skull for a skull branded whisky. This skull is a replica of the famous ‘Lucy’ the ~40% complete fossil of a female Australopithecus afarensis found in the Afar valley of Ethiopia in 1974. Lucy’s other name, is Dinkinesh, which in the local Amharic language means ‘you are marvellous’. This beautiful lady is 3.2 million years old and demonstrates an important part of the evolutionary story of modern man; that bipedalism developed prior to rapidly increasing brain sizes.]

Smokehead, the misterious single malt from Islay, bottled by Ian Mcleod, comes from one undisclosed Islay distillery. Many people say it is a young Ardbeg, others say a young Lagavulin. The reality is the secret is well kept, and if you ask me, it is Caol Ila. A nice looking bottle, with a skull on its label, that says smokehead and everything about peat makes you think you are going to have an octomore or something, but it really is very easy to drink, super appealing and very sweet. Bottled at 43%abv, burnished gold color. On the nose, it is very complex for what it seems a young whisky. Merthiolate, smoke, vanilla, maritime profile, peat, plastic. A cheap citric note, burning grass, incense, moss and foam. After a second sip gave me fondant, mangrove swamp, metallic as a 1 cent coin, old oranges. On the palate it is very sweet and not peaty nor a skull of a whisky. Chocolate, honeycomb, salt, sulphur, vanilla. Hay and dry grass. Lots of vanilla. Aftertaste is where a mild, pleasant peatiness kicks in. Smoke, pepper, peat, earthy. Long, spicy and sulphuric finish. I believe this is a well crafted, very tasty peaty whisky which happens to be super easy to drink and rather sweet, and that is why it works. For me, this is Caol Ila, because: 1.- Caol Ila is the easiest Islay whisky to buy for independent bottlers, the cask offers are everywhere and they are not expensive. Smokehead is not a expensive bottle. 2.- The cheap citric flavors and aromas are similar to Caol Ila spirits i have had before, specially young independent ones. 3.- the sweetness feels a lot like a Johnnie Walker, and one of their key whiskies for the blend is Caol Ila. 4.- The peat ppm of this dram is too low compared to any Ardbeg Spirit. Any Lagavulin spirit would be too expensive. It could be Bruichladdich, but it doesn't have the soapy profile; it could be Bunnahabhain, but peatiness is not their particular stronghold. Kilchoman is more grapy, and Bowmore is more cigarrette/tobacco. Laphroaig is powerfully medicinal and tennis balls, too different from this one, WHO ACTUALLY RESEMBLES A LOT TO A CAOL ILA. I might be wrong, but that is my analysis on the subject. The whisky is good, i would buy a whole bottle. My score for it is 85 over 100.

Nose: Smoke, herbal / black tea, campfire, wood, salt/saline, seaside Palate: Tobacco, dried fruit, dates, peat smoke, sweet and dry Finish: Leather, charred wood, slightly ashy. Souring on the aftertaste This is not as nuanced or layered as many of the Islay malts. It has a youthfulness that brings out some of the sweet smokey flavours. It's also not as smokey as the marketing would have you expect. This is a very easy drinking dram, it's more of a 'drink with friends' rather than a 'ponder and sip by the fireplace' kind of dram. A pretty decent entry-level smokey dram. I try not to consider price when I am reviewing a whisky - and I haven't let it influence my overall score. However, while the RRP on this is around the £35 mark, I have regularly seen this in supermarkets at around the £22-£25 mark which I would consider a bit of a bargain. I bought my bottle for £20 on sale while I was buying my weekly shop and couldn't resist giving it a try. I'm glad I did!

Smokey cream sweetness, meat, jerky , bbq, cig, tobacco 3.25 Cream complex meat oily thickness, slight bitterness woody oaky, vanilla caramel 2.5 High sustained oaky smoke 2.5 8.25 2.75 Cough syrup sweetness, honey maples syrup, mid pep, strong complexity, caol ila 12YO kind of smell, 3 Spicy at first but it will be overcome with a little flat notes to dull it down. But in time you get more smokey and nice earthy herb smoke, bitterness at that, earthy 2.75 smoke and low to mid sustain smoke 2.5

It’s a Smokey dram on the nose. But it’s all bark and no bite. I believe others have mentioned this. It’s relatively easy drinking - smooth and vanilla with oak. The smoke is only there as an illusion which is disheartening. The saline/iodine finish is not as pronounced as others have mentioned. I’m fact I couldn’t detect any at all. Still a relatively enjoyable scotch- but for the price there are FAR better selections.

Not a drain pour by any means but you expect more than an inoffensive sweet scotch with a bit of peat from the marketing. Not assertive enough to be a go-to Islay, but perhaps another possibility for an introduction to the style. I have no evidence that any component is sherry cask finished but the sweet richness does give off that impression.