Tasting one Laphroaig

A Laphroaig from 1998, matured in a sherry butt, I don't think I've ever experienced such a young Laphroaig entirely from sherry wood before.



















Laphroaig 13yo 1998-2011 61.5% Van Wees "The Ultimate..." cask#700348 btl.43/555

The color on this one is mahogany orange/brown. It smells of sweet sherry, syrup, caramel, cinnamon, oranges, bbq glaze, stewed onions, earthy, burnt clay, cough mixture, coffee drops, very nice one initially. Then the peat hits like a bomb and totally blocks out anything but peat, smoke, coal, salt and rubber. The taste is sweet sherry, not unlike Glenfarclas or even Macallan at first, then after 0.7 seconds it turns volatile with extreme peaty character, smoke, coal, bitter herbs, raw onions, salt, peppery, iodine, cough syrup, textbook Laphroaig in my opinion. The finish is salty, tarry, long, and again what a Laphroaig should be like. This is macho whisky, for macho whisky drinkers, that can handle extreme peat. Now you're warned! It seems to me, that the high alcohol level and sherry influence enhances the peat as that character is much more effervescent (excuse my language) in this than any other 1998 Laphroaigs I've had, which all have been from bourbon casks of course. What's really fun about this one is that even at this strength, undiluted, it has no spirity notes at all.

One great Laphroaig, superb stuff: 8



Next tasting: Lagavulin Distillery