Tasting 5 Laphroaigs, 3 1998'ers

I'm tasting 5 Laphroaigs today, usually one of my favorite distilleries, but it also has some black sheeps once in a while.











Laphroaig 15yo 50% Old Malt Cask Douglas Laing

Pale golden color on this one, makes me think of fino wood immediately, but lets not be too quick on that. It smells of peat, leather, rubbery, latex, wax, iodine, classic Laphroaig. The taste is peaty, soapy, burnt rubber, bitter, oaky, quite spirity, not one that I'd recommend if you want to try laphroaig, as I can assure you for its price, there's much better alternatives out there. And by the way, I'm not sure wether this one comes from a fino cask or just a very stale bourbon cask.

Stay away from this one: 3 (for the nose)


Laphroaig 18yo 1979-1997 53.5% The Clydesdale cask#3987

An older bottling, I sure don't see much of The Clydesdale these days, even though I have got some more from them on my shelves. The color is white wine. It smells of wax, wool, wall insulation, some slight bitter notes and sweet herbs, pesto, butter. A very unusual Laphroaig. The taste is sweet, peppery, iodine, hot, spicy, chillies, burning on the tongue, but not much coastal notes. Actually not very refined, hard to come over the extreme peppery and chili notes. Some drying herbal notes as well, but not much else.

Only a curiosity, worth more as a collectable than an experience I'm afraid: 3


Laphroaig 10yo 1998-2009 55.5% Malts of Scotland cask#15

From a sherry butt. The color is brown. It smells of sweet peat, refreshing, honey, junipers, honey, drying, amarone wine, rubbery, great stuff. The taste is sweet, dry, rubbery, peppery, needs water, this dry sherry notes are all over the place right now. With water added it turns sweeter, licorice, cactus, lime rind, very bitter. Now a favorite this expression, but I have another sherried one that I'll try on a later occasion, bottled for Denmark, lets hope that's a bit more smooth.

For what its worth, its a sherry bomb: 5


Laphroaig 13yo 1998-2011 53.4% Malts of Scotland cask#5920

Almost completely blank this one, from a bourbon hogshead. It smells of iodine, tarr, ropes, sea salt, fish stock, smoky, shrimp paste, dried fish, the real deal when it comes to Laphroaig if you ask me, but thats just the nose. The taste is sweet, vanilla, peppery, peaty, grainy, ashes, coal, spicy, good stuff. I often find in Laphroaig, a high %abv somehow it's the other flavors rise to the level of peat influence there is. Here the peat dominates just a bit too much to let all those sweet, coastal, fruity, cask flavors come through.

Very good, but if bottled at 8-10yo, I think it'd be a winner: 6.5


Laphroaig 13yo 1998-2011 56.4% Malts of Scotland for Aquavitae 2011 cask#11002

Last one, same bottler, same vintage, let's hope it continues improving. The color is pale yellow. It smells of peat, apple vinegar, pineapple, peppery, not as raw as the past two, seems a bit more salty and sea salt, dried fish, oily, clean, sea weed, fish stock, cod liver, bacon crisps, stewed onions. The taste is sweet, vanilla, banana, cured ham, vanilla cookies, coco, peat, parsnip, oysters, almonds, crazy sweet stuff. Sort of a wonderful mismatch of french bakery and raw coastal Islay character. They balance each other out perfectly.

The highlight in this session due to the lack of extreme(?!?): 8



Next tasting: Kilchoman Distillery