In the early 1970s, Benriach broke convention in Speyside by returning to distilling batches of whisky in the old, 19th century style, using malted barley smoked with Highland peat. This wood rich Highland peat imparts distinctly sweet and smoky notes into Benriach peated whiskies. Benriach The Smoky Ten has been crafted from a combination of unpeated and peated spirit and three cask matured for at least ten years in a combination of bourbon barrels, Jamaican rum casks and toasted virgin oak. The whisky is then expertly married together to create sublimely smooth layers of sunripe fruit, aromatic smoke and toasted oak spice, lingering into the perfectly balanced sweet and smoky finish.

Inspired by the old ancient Blackpitts area just behind the new Teeling Whiskey Distillery, Blackpitts was traditionally home to some of the largest barley malting houses in Ireland. By using smoke from peat to dry the barley during the malting process, the resulting peated malt produces a distinctive smoky taste profile which is the signature of a Peated Single Malt. However, what makes it so unique is the triple distillation process, which reduces some of the medicinal character you would get from a traditional Scottish Peated Single Malt and allows the more barbeque smoke characteristic to shine. This is then combined with signature Teeling innovative cask maturation using both ex-bourbon and ex-Sauternes white wine casks. The inspiration for the use of these casks came from a previous bottling of Teeling 24-Year-Old Single Malt which was honoured as the “World's Best Single Malt” in 2019 at the World Whiskies Awards.