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By: Will Blakely | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 6/23/2023 | Send Email
I've had several people ask me how we're able to get true single cask Laphroaig, especially at this price, and it is a bit of a mystery in the current climate. Speculation on its quality abounds, so let me remove any doubt: this bottling is truly exceptional and hits like classic Laphroaig cask strength. If anything, the first pour and sip strike a bit too intensely for my taste, so I had to give this one some air in the glass. My patience was definitely rewarded. A note on the aroma from Douglas Laing reads, "spent fireworks," and there is an unmistakable scent of combusted gunpowder atop peppercorn, candle wax and thyme. At times it smells like a brewery in full swing, then the smoke, spice and herbs come roaring back. First taste brings that trademark seaweed and iodine along with robust and intense malt and a bonfire of garden clippings. With a dash of water, the sweetness ramps up, giving vanilla and sarsaparilla their turn in the spotlight and showing the quality of the malt. Yes, there's briny olive, but there's also an immensely satisfying buttered biscuit quality here. It achieves a remarkable balance between sweet, savory, umami and herbal flavors that keeps me coming back for just one more sip until suddenly the glass is empty. Deceptively captivating, this will be an instant favorite with people who miss the unabashed and untamed Laphroaig that has grown increasingly hard to find.
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By: David Othenin-Girard | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 6/7/2023 | Send Email
It's ridiculous how difficult it is for us to get Laphroaig. There was a period were the few barrels we had access to were many times the price of the distillery bottlings for similar ages. That just doesn't make sense. But now that the distillery is selling single casks for upwards of $200, we're feeling pretty damn good about this awesome barrel of 10 year Laphroaig. In we go. The color is white wine. The nose is an absolute missile, full of explosive flinty gun smoke, saucisson sec, old metal, an almost fruit habanero, olive brine, anis, roasting herbs and in the background a subtle green papaya. On the palate pure green peat smoke, sweet meat, white pepper, ginger, camphor, more pepper. Long smoldering finish. With a bit of water we've got less got less gunsmoke and more iodine. Salted fish, lemon preserves, damp leaves on a fire, pine, green olives. It's very GREEN. Very salty now on the palate, full bodied and oily. Still has tons of roasty smoke, acrid and powerful, now lasts even longer some how. It's just the perfect naked Laphroaig at this age. When you want to get slapped around a bit, this is the one you reach for. The modern distillery stuff, cask strength or not, doesn't hold a candle to the intensity of this special cask.
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