It’s not a secret that I like Laphroaig (despite a few disappointing releases in the last few years) but the annual 10 Year Old Cask Strength is always exciting and almost every single time a fantastic whisky.

2.5 years ago, I went through an epic tasting of all the Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength releases from green stripe all the way up to batch 009 and it was quite a memorable one. But since then we’ve moved into the early teen batches of the series – 010, 011 and the recently released 012 batch.

So, head to head tasting? sure thing! Not as epic and lengthy as the previous tasting, but still a good and satisfying evening going back and forth between them.

Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength Batch 010 (58%)

credit: thewhiskyworld.com

Nose: Sweet smoke, honey and vanilla, chimney smoke, tarry, after a while also fruits with pears and peaches, a bit of disinfectant and a pack of band-aids, getting more lively. With a few drops of water (but not a lot) more honey and vanilla, more medicinal and with extra TCP. Continue reading →

Earlier this year when I saw the news on a forthcoming Laphroaig 16 Year Old I was very happy to speculate that a new core line up expression is coming but at the same time was a bit worried following the latest official releases were I found out to be a bit average or disappointing (Yeah, 4 Oak, Lore and 1815 I do look at you).

My speculating was proved to be wrong as this is a limited edition and an Amazon exclusive in Europe. If you live in the USA, you fare better as it’s available at different retailers and isn’t an Amazon exclusive (probably due to the very complex system of taxes on alcohol between states).

But even if I was wrong on the release and was disappointed from recent official releases, I did have high hopes for this release based on my experience of the previous (yet different) 16 Year Old Release from 2015 (the 200th Anniversary one). But it’s ex-bourbon casks and it’s bottled at higher abv of 48% so let’s stay optimistic and hope it’ll pan out just fine:

Laphroaig 16 Year Old (2019) (48%, £89/€94,70/$139.99)

Nose: Big peaty and coastal nose. Peat smoke, sea breeze, the return of medicinal Laphroaig with iodine, TCP and bandages, honey, very crisp, more peat smoke. After a few minutes green fruits, ripe and unripe apples, kiwi, more honey and sweet peat with medicinal notes in the backseat along with hints of tropical fruits. Continue reading →

The fourth day of Feis Ile belongs to Laphroaig, the distillery that sparked my journey into whisky. My commemorative review is of a young Laphroaig, only 6 (and a half) years old bottled for whiskybase.com to celebrate the fact they have 100,000 bottles in their database for users to create and track their collections and stock.

It’s named ‘Same as 10k’ because it was a Laphroaig they bottled for 10,000 bottles in the database. It was distilled on 5/5/11 (nice date!) filled into a Refill Sherry Hogshead #3199 and bottled roughly 6 and a half years later on 23/1/18. This hogshead yielded 354 bottles at 58.7% so the angels didn’t take much out of it.

Laphroaig 2011 6 Year Old ‘Same as 10k’ for Whiskybase (58,7%)

Nose: Laphoaig nose with the peat smoke and iodine, some ashes, TCP, very pharmaceutical and then some subtle red fruit sweetness. Continue reading →

Yesterday’s post on the 1815 got me in a Laphroaig mood, so here’s another Laphroaig review but this time it’s a special post recapping a special Laphroaig tasting that was held by my friend Yori, a certified Laphroaig geek.

Theme of the tasting: Vertical tasting of the official Laphroaig 10 Year Old Cask Strength releases. Over the last few years he collected samples and bottles of all Laphroaig 10 Year Old Cask Strength variants – from the Green Stripe to Batch 009 that was released in 2017 for a total of eleven variants of 10 Year Old Laphroaig Cask Strength.

So on a sunny and not too cold Friday morning last November, we sat down for a 4.5 hours marathon tasting of Cask Strength Laphroaig. Which one was the best? and which one was the worst? I suggest you take a deep breath before diving into the notes, but if you just want my full ranking, it’s at the bottom after the long list of the tasting notes.

Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength Green Stripe 57.3%

Nose: Rich and thick body, wet peat, bonfire and tar, anise, honey, perfume, iodine and TCP. Continue reading →

Last night we had our monthly local whisky club meeting which focused on Laphroaig whiskies. But in truth it was a tasting night centered around a bottle of Laphroaig 30 Year Old bottle we managed to get. But tasting only the 30 yo somewhat felt wrong and so we brought along some young and cheaper siblings as appetizers, among them the 1815 Legacy Edition which I didn’t get to review here yet and so it will be the subject of our review today.

Laphroaig The 1815 Legacy Edition was released in April 2017 to Travel Retail market but like many TR exclusives ,it’s now available in many retail shops. It was aged in first-fill bourbon barrels and new European oak hogsheads and bottled at 48%.

Laphroaig The 1815 Legacy Edition (48%, £78.50/80,90€)

Nose: Soft and sweeter nose, especially when compared to the 10 yo and Four Oak. Feels ‘richer’, a bit of luxury feeling, with sweet fruit, both from the first fill bourbon and the other casks: red apples and strawberry Vs. pears and honey. After a few minutes some subtle ashes shows up along with iodine and salted meat. Continue reading →

I’ll never get bored of the Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength series. I love Laphroaig and those whiskies usually deliver the Laph profile dialed up to the max. I tasted a few earlier batches (although I only published a review on Batch 7), so now it’s time to review Batch 8 and eventually I hope to catch up to the latest Batch 9 before the next edition will be released 😉

Laphroaig 10 Year Old Cask Strength Batch #008 (59.2%, $65.00)

Nose: Soft peat smoke with short lived acrid burn note (that thankfully disappeared quickly), vanilla and honey, sweet fresh cut oak, Slowly smoked cured meat rises up big time, salt. After it breathed for a few minutes there’s meat, lemon and vanilla stuffed baked pastry. This is one tasty nose. Continue reading →

Today we’re gonna look at one of the two latest Travel Retail releases from Laphroaig. The Four Oak was released in early 2017 and as the name states, it was matured in four different oak casks: Ex-bourbon barrels. Small quarter casks, virgin American oak barrels and larger European Oak hogshead.

You know the saying “too many cooks spoil the broth”? In our cask it will be: Will too many cask types spoil the whisky? Since it follows two very mediocre and similar releases (Yes, I’m looking at you Laphroaig QA and Select), I was a bit wary of this one. But maybe this time it will work better?

Laphroaig Four Oak (40%, 1 Liter, £66/€51,95)

Nose: sweet, earthy peat smoke, iodine, cereals, honey, not a strong peat reek, quite gentle but feels rounder than QA/Select. After a few minutes in the glass some greenery. cardamom, a tad farmy with metallic metallic, salt water, Lapsang Souchong tea, more sweet smoke, getting sweeter and flatter. Continue reading →

It’s my favorite Islay distillery day at Feis Ile – Laphroaig distillery. Despite some recent disappointing (or even bad) releases from Laphroaig, there are still some good official releases. Let’s go back one year and review one of them, the 2016 Cairdeas that was matured in bourbon barrels and then finished in Madeira casks.

Laphroaig Cairdeas 2016 Madeira Cask (51.6%, $79.99)

Nose: At my first tasting of this whisky I thought it wasn’t quite well with disharmony between the peat and the fruitiness of the Madeira cask but a few weeks later it’s better with gentle peat, red grapes and red berries, a bit of zest (orange peels?) and malt. With a few drops of water sharper smoke on the front. Smoke is the star with red berries fruit  at backseat with touch of peat and medicinal notes but the water kind of transform it into a very one dimensional whisky. Continue reading →

Over a year ago I reviewed a Laphroaig I really didn’t like – The Port Wood Finished Brodir. It was the batch generally available on the market, batch 002. A friend of mine couldn’t believe I found it so bad because he liked it a lot. After a short discussion we found out where the difference in opinions came from: while I was tasting and disliking the second batch, he has a bottle of the first batch, so he generously sent me a sample to check for myself that Brodir can be good (Thanks T!).

A quick refresher: Laphroaig Brodir is Travel Retail NAS bottling, matured in Ex-bourbon casks and then is finished for unspecified time in European Oak Ex-Ruby Port casks before being bottled at 48%.

So, let’s see if the second batch I so disliked is indeed so different from the first batch or maybe it’s only a matter of personal taste.

Laphroaig Brodir Batch 001 Port Wood Finish (48%, €89,95)

Nose: First sniff and it already way better. There’s body and presence that just doesn’t exists in the 2nd batch. Soft peat smoke, sweet berries: raspberries and blueberries, kinda jammy, very well integrated. After a few minutes, stronger iodine and medicinal notes show up along with honey and salt. Continue reading →