Peat and Whisky by Mike Billett

3.5 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

Uisge beatha, or the water of life as whisky is sometimes known, is a glorious drink, though too much of it can have the opposite effect. This drink is intrinsically linked to the peat bogs of Scotland and Ireland and the subtle flavours that it imbues to the raw spirit is intensified with the dual magic of oak and time.

There is a lot of myths behind the symbiose of peat and whisky and in those swirling myths are facts, if you know where to look. Mike Billett is one of those people who know where to look and more importantly what to look for and where to find it. He is ideally qualified too, he is a peatland scientist deeply embedded in the way that the lifecycle of the peat bog.

This book is a mix of travelogue, science, natural history and the history of whisky. Billet is an engaging author whose knowledge of the subject fully understands how this brown fuel makes the drink what it is today. He gives a good insight into the distilling process too, he has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the distilleries and their water sources and their maltings. He has a boundless enthusiasm for whisky in all its iterations.

I really liked this book. The mix of genres works well as a cohesive narrative. It is a book to be read with a large dram of your favourite whisky and luxuriate in how a damp brown moss can have so much influence over this spirit.