Smokey flavor

Whole grains means grains of cereals from which no part has been intentionally removed. The unique taste characteristics and smokey flavor of Scotch is developed from peat used in the whisky production process. The character and amount of peat used in malting the barley have a critical affect on the flavor intensity of the final product. The aroma of the burning peat is absorbed by the barley malt and is carried through the distillation process. 

It has a semi-sweet, tarry-medicinal odor, tar-like, smokey (Arctander, 1967) burnt, guaiacol-like (from Kim Ha and Lindsay, 1991). The flavor is chemical, phenolic, disinfectant (Chemisis, 1963). 

It has a powerful and penetrating smokey-tarry odor, in extreme dilution sweet, woody-herbaceous, slightly animal (Arctander, 1967). It has a green, beany, metallic flavor (Chemisis, 1997). 

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