The woodier, lignin-rich Highland peat cut for Ardmore burns sweet and mesquite-like, rather than the phenol-thick, iodine-like smoke of Islay (owing to its high level of sphagnum moss). Here, Ardmore single malt was matured in a single barrel that previously housed one of the meanest and peatiest of the Islay Whiskies, and so you get the best of both.