Peated whisky brings Islay straight to mind, and single malts full of smoke, iodine and medicinal notes. Over the past few years Italy has grown its own projects working with peated malt or with casks that once held peated whisky, still a niche but increasingly worth following for anyone who likes the style.

Reading a WhiskyClub.it piece on the InQuota Rare Edition I realised that, although I drink almost nothing but peated whisky, I had never looked into what is happening in Italy.

Italian peated whisky comes about in two ways: some distilleries use peated barley malt brought in from abroad, others take the smoke only from casks that previously held peated whisky.

Peat in the malt or peat in the casks

Peat in the malt: at least part of the barley malt is peated, the smoke comes in as the malt is dried and softens over the years in cask. Peat in the casks: the spirit starts from unpeated malt, but matures or is finished in casks that previously held peated whisky, and those casks impart a softer smokiness.

A few labels use both methods, as Sibona does.

Italian distilleries working with peated malt

Poli Distillerie (Veneto): Segretario di Stato and Conclave

Poli Distillerie, in Schiavon near Vicenza, came to whisky after more than a century of grappa, liqueurs and grape spirits. Peat arrives with two labels, Segretario di Stato and Conclave, which take different routes.

Segretario di Stato is a pure barley malt whisky the distillery describes as pleasantly peated. It is distilled in a bain-marie still, ages for five years and is finished in casks that held Amarone della Valpolicella: toasted nuts, raisins, prunes and chocolate over a soft smokiness. It is bottled at 43%.

Conclave changes the recipe: part of it comes from peated malt, part from unpeated malt, distilled separately and vatted only afterwards. There is no Amarone here: maturation takes place in regenerated white oak casks, and after five years the strength goes up to 46%, with sharper peat over toasted cereals, vanilla and liquorice.

On the distillery’s website, in September 2026, Segretario di Stato and Conclave both cost 49.50 euros.

Type of peat: peated malt, on its own or vatted with unpeated malt.
Maturation: Amarone casks for Segretario di Stato, regenerated white oak barriques for Conclave.
Style in the glass: gentle peat, plenty of wood and dried fruit, warmer and more wine-driven than maritime.

Sibona (Piedmont): Italian Whisky

In the Piedmont grappa district, in Piobesi d’Alba, Sibona makes an Italian Whisky the label calls a “Premium blend with peated malt”: a share of peated malt of around 38%, distilled in batch bain-marie stills.

It matures in small oak casks that have already held peated whisky, Caol Ila among them: the peat comes first from the grain and then from the casks. The glass gives honey, cocoa, leather, dried fruit and a clear smokiness, rounder than the peated whiskies of Islay. It is bottled at 44%; the price of 59.90 euros is the one WhiskyClub reported when the first batch came out, in February 2025.

Type of peat: peated malt in a blend, plus casks that have already held peated whisky.
Maturation: small oak casks, with a strong wood imprint.
Style in the glass: elegant smoke over cocoa, leather and wood.

InQuota / Villa de Varda (Trentino): Mountain Single Malt Peated

InQuota is the mountain whisky project of Villa de Varda, a long-established distillery in Mezzolombardo with a grappa background. The idea is to work grain and casks at altitude, making use of the mountain climate.

The peated side comes with the Mountain Single Malt Peated, a Rare Edition released in small single cask lots. Cask 1009 is bottled at 55.4% in 253 bottles; 1010, its twin bound for export, at 54.2%. The malt, the only ingredient not sourced locally, is peated to 37 ppm according to WhiskyClub; the official sheet does not give a figure. The official notes list peat, vanilla, lemon and liquorice.

Type of peat: peated malt, 37 ppm (source: WhiskyClub).
Maturation: selected single casks.
Style in the glass: peat that is there without taking over, with vanilla and citrus.

Strada Ferrata (Lombardy): First Release and 5th Release

Strada Ferrata started in Seregno, in Brianza, from a group with a brewing background, and went for peated malt from the outset.

The First Release, out in 2024 and bottled at 52%, is a single cask from peated malt matured in a cask that had held beer. It is now sold out. The 5th Release is the one on sale today: peated malt again, 47%, matured in ex-bourbon casks and finished in casks that held Marsala; on the distillery’s website, in September 2026, it costs 69 euros.

Alongside the releases there are the On The Way bottlings, which the distillery does not call whisky because they have not yet spent three years in cask: they are there to show how the spirit changes as it ages.

Type of peat: peated malt.
Maturation: beer casks, ex-bourbon and a finish in Marsala casks.
Style in the glass: intense peat over a young spirit.

Puni: peat from the casks and from the malt

Puni, the South Tyrolean distillery in Glorenza, is the one that made Italian whisky known abroad, and for years it took its smoke only from the casks.

ARTE 05: peat that comes from the casks

ARTE 05 spends 6.4 years in casks from Islay that had held heavily peated whisky, and is bottled at 48%. The spirit itself is not peated: the smoke comes entirely from the casks, soft and enveloping, with bergamot and honey. There are 2,830 bottles, at 89.90 euros on the distillery’s website in September 2026.

ARTE 07: Scottish peated malt

ARTE 07 does the opposite: here the malt is peated with Scottish peat, so the smoke comes from the grain and not from the cask. Eight years in ex-bourbon casks, 50%, 1,269 bottles; on the distillery’s website, in September 2026, it costs 99 euros, and the ppm figure is not given.

Type of peat: in the malt with ARTE 07, from the casks with ARTE 05.
Maturation: ex-bourbon for the 07, casks that held peated whisky from Islay for the 05.
Style in the glass: clean, direct smoke in ARTE 07, softer smoke in ARTE 05.

Anyone looking for the old Puni Alba, three years in Marsala casks and finished in casks that held peated whisky, will not find it in the range any more: on the Puni website it sits among the past releases.

Why they do not taste like Islay whiskies

Anyone coming from Laphroaig 10, Ardbeg or Kilchoman should expect something else: Italian peat does not copy the whiskies of Islay.

The peat is gentler: distilleries working with peated malt rarely reach the levels of the most heavily peated Islay bottlings, and those using only casks that held peated whisky end up with a thinner, sweeter smokiness. The casks are more varied: Amarone, Marsala, regenerated white oak, ex-bourbon and even casks that held beer make the profile more wine-driven, spicy and tannic.

The background is different too: many of these distilleries come from the grappa world and already know how to use a cask; Strada Ferrata comes from brewing and experiments more.

For anyone who drinks Scottish peated whisky these are no replacement for the Islay classics, but they show what happens when peat meets Amarone, Marsala, beer and an Alpine climate.