At Wolfburn, peat isn’t just an ingredient – it’s a connection to our past. For three months each year, we use peated malt to make our whisky as a nod to the past. The result is a trio of expressions that each carry a different whisper of smoke: Northland and our 12 Year Old, both very lightly peated at around 5ppm, and Morven, gently lifted to 10ppm. Think of them as three steps into the world of peat – subtle, refined, and wonderfully approachable. Confused about ppm and what it all means? Phenol parts per million is a measurement of the smoky, peaty flavour compounds in the malted barley before it’s distilled from lightly peated (under 20 PPM) to heavily peated (30-100+ PPM).

Historically, whether a distillery used peated or unpeated malt came down to something surprisingly simple: fuel. Before efficient transport existed, distillers relied on whatever they could source locally to kiln their malt. If a railway ran past your door, affordable coal was the obvious choice. But if you were remote, island-based, or far from industrial routes, peat from nearby bogs became your lifeline and with it came that evocative smoky character we now associate with whisky.

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