Ardbeg’s Masters Of Smoke As A Gateway To Peaty Scotch

By Richard Thomas

Being something of a whiskey generalist, one of the problems I grapple with regularly is how to overcome preconceived notions and deeply ingrained preferences. Enthusiasts have a tendency to be nerdy about whiskey, and nerds have a tendency towards blinkerdom. So, even though Scotch whisky present a wide, deep palate of flavors to its drinkers, getting a bourbon fan to explore even the most approachable corner Scotch is sometimes an uphill effort.

The steepest hill to climb is the one with peaty Scotch sitting at the top. In my experience, most people have their first experience with Scotch whisky in a youthful encounter with a bottom shelf blended whisky, and those often draw on small quantities of peated malt in their blends. That smoke stands out and becomes a signature of a  negative experience. Many, many times I have met someone who is turned off by a cheap blended whisky with a bitter flavor profile whose two main notes were wood and creosote, and that person declares they don’t like whisky. I find American and Irish whiskeys are the best route for undoing that damage, but then bringing them back around to Scotch can be a tricky thing. One route is to avoid the smoke altogether and steer for Sherried whiskies instead.

The odd thing about avoiding smoke is a bourbon fan ought to appreciate a peated whisky from the start, because one of the flavor notes most appreciated by bourbon fans is that of barrel char. The two don’t taste the same, but people reach for similar terms to describe them, so the mental pathway is open.

So, when I heard about Ardbeg’s Masters of Smoke tour, I thought “that is just the thing.” Ardbeg is renowned among Scotch enthusiasts for offering some of the smokiest, and yet still complex single malts the famously peated island of Islay has to offer. Traveling around the country in an Airstream trailer, Ardbeg is taking the divisive question of peat head on.

At the core of Masters of Smoke is a guided sensory experience to just what lies behind Ardbeg’s smoky character. I suspect the flavor note that turns off so many when it appears in a cheap blended whisky is dubbed by Ardbeg as “coal,” but there are four others as well: medicinal, herbal, wood and savory. In a brief session, the Masters of Smoke ambassador works with a guest through all five smoke scent notes to generate a flavor profile that works for that individual, and then steers them towards the Ardbeg expression that presents that profile.

I’ve found the voice of authority counts for a lot in overcoming preconceived notions, and I’m willing to bet more than a few skeptics have become converts via the Masters of Smoke tour. And if the curated sensory experience doesn’t open minds regarding the virtues of peaty whisky, then the cocktail program should finish the job. When it comes to programs like Masters of Smoke, I’ve found only two types of people aren’t shifted in their preferences at least some what: folks who just plain don’t drink and those so set in their ways you had to drag them there.

The Masters of Smoke has already swung through the Mid-West and South, and is finishing off the Eastern United States through the remainder of Spring 2024 in New York and Massachusetts. After that, the tour will spend the summer in the Western half of the US. Destinations and dates can be found on the Masters of Smoke website.