Most distilleries talk about smoke and leave sweetness as a feeling. Ailsa Bay measures both. Twenty-two ppm of phenol, nineteen ppm of sweetness, and they print the figures on the bottle as though it were a lab report. Nerdy? Yes. It also makes sense in the glass.
The Expert's Description
Ailsa Bay 1.2 Sweet Smoke is a Lowland Single Malt Scotch Whisky matured first in small Hudson Baby bourbon casks and then in American white oak, bottled at 48.9%. It is the distillery’s second release and sits at 22 ppm of phenol and 19 SPPM of sweetness, where the first release measured 21 ppm and 11 SPPM.
Micro-maturation is the heart of it. The spirit goes first into casks of between 25 and 100 litres, Hudson Baby bourbon casks from the United States, where the small volume gives an extreme amount of wood contact per litre. It is then moved into standard American oak casks for the longer maturation. No other Scottish malt distillery uses the method.
One detail is worth holding on to: the 22 ppm is measured in the distillate rather than in the malt, which is the usual practice. The figure therefore cannot be compared directly with the ppm numbers on an Islay bottle. Ailsa Bay was built in 2007 by William Grant & Sons on the site of the Girvan distillery in South Ayrshire.
Tasting Notes
Nose
Sweet smoke first, closer to burnt sugar than a bonfire. Behind it come vanilla, fudge and a note of toasted malt. There is salt and a little tar in the background too, a reminder of the coast where the whisky is made.
Palate
The sweetness arrives before the smoke. Caramel, honey and custard open, and only then does the peat report in as a dry, almost mineral floor. The 48.9% gives good body, and the texture is thicker than you would expect from a whisky this young. That is the small casks showing themselves.
Finish
Medium length. Smoke and sweetness let go at roughly the same time, with a dry ash note and a last touch of salt.
Specifications
Name: Ailsa Bay 1.2 Sweet Smoke 22 ppm Single Malt Scotch Whisky 48.9%
Distillery: Ailsa Bay
Bottler: William Grant & Sons
Region/Country: Lowland, Scotland
Type: Lowland Single Malt Scotch Whisky
ABV: 48.9%
Size: 70 CL
Cask type: Micro-maturation in small Hudson Baby bourbon casks, then American white oak
Edition: Release 1.2 Sweet Smoke
EAN no.: 5010327655697
Flavour Profile
Smoky · Sweet · Vanilla · Maritime · Caramel · Spiced
Did You Know?
SPPM stands for sweetness parts per million, and Ailsa Bay invented the term. No other whisky producer measures sweetness that way. Whether it is science or marketing is open to argument, but it is at least the first time anyone has tried to put a number on that half of the balance.
See our full range of Ailsa Bay
