Released in 2004, this bottling was aged for around five years before being finished in a quarter cask for several months, the size of the cask is quite small, thus does not require such a long maturation. This remains a truly great achievement from Laphroaig.
Oily and buttery nose, with toffee, nuttiness, hickory, bicarbonate of soda, rum and raisin ice cream and zest.
Big rush of sweetness, in fact it’s an explosion of sweetness, with fiery chilli heat, TCP, sweet cereals and a touch of cola syrup.
Medium-length, but becomes fruity, with custard and cigar smoke.
If you love the standard 10, 15 and 18 year old expressions of Laphroaig, then do yourself a favour and give this anaemic swill a wide berth. I love peated whiskies, including the major releases from every distillery on Islay, and much from further afield, yet try as I might I could not find the comparable quality in terms of clarity of expression, flavour, depth, development, finish, impact, complexity, smoothness or duration of smell and taste which is to be found in regular expressions. This is an inferior dram by every metric, and, not for the first time an NAS bottling is an embarrassing anomaly in a distiller's panoply of output....
I'm pretty new to whisky and for the most part own only Speysides and Bourbons. This is My first venture into Laphroaig and the world of Islay peaty whisky. After much research, I finally decided that I should start with Laphroaig. And I'm glad I did! The nose is a shocker coming from someone who is used to sweet, fruity, caramelly noses of the Speysides/Bourbons varieties. The smoky medicine smell is completely different from what I was introduced to. Actually my first impression was, "Should we even be drinking stuff that smells this chemically?!" But to my surprise, the palate was very smooth. A touch of fruit, salt and hints of medicine. Tons of smoke still. And really really liked the 48% bottling, a lot of substance. The winner for me though was the finish. It lasted forever!!!! Such a nice lingering taste. Honestly had me wanting to go back for another dram, but didnt. The lingering finish and the thought of wanting more was enough. A very memorable first impression of Islay. I am sold!
It's whisky, how whisky was mentioned to be. It is totally ridiculous to bash it, because a real whisky enthusiast knows that Laphroaig is special.
Only re-emphasizes how amazing this stuff is. A+
20 years ago a bartender suggested 10 yo Laphroaig. Drink of choice since. Quarter Cask and I have had a love hate relationship. Essentially the same price always deferred to the 10. Received QC as a gift. One suggestion I read was QC benefitted from a splash of water. It does. Like another reviewer, it is better once opened, and left a few weeks to settle, the young whisky matures. Scotch is more popular. Hard to ramp up production with a 10 year lead time.
