Single Malt
Scotland
1 Dec 2022
The folks at Laphroaig describe its 10 Year Old Cask Strength as the Islay distillery's most powerful expression, and here we have Batch 16! Bottled in 2022 at a robust cask strength of 58.5% ABV, it's packed with pungent layers of peppery peat smoke, meaty malt, sea salt, and oaken vanilla.
Rich and oily, with woody spice and bonfire ash, smoked fish, salted nuts, anise, and hints of iodine.
A tangle of sweetness and smoke, with vanilla honey, cooked apples, buttery pastry and tarry, medicinal peat. Briny, with warming notes of ginger.
Bold and drying. Smouldering smoke lingers, with charred oak, candied almonds, and iodine.
I've had the pleasure of having tasted Laphroaig many times over the years. I know and remember the bold flavors in bottlings from the 90's and 00's. It's been a steady decline since then, resulting in a distinctly tame expression today. This was unfortunately no exception - I'd hoped that perhaps there'd be a whiff of what used to be in a cask strength expression. Sadly not. The medicinal iodine and peat just doesn't hit like you'd want it to, the edges are gone. It's a perfectly fine whisky, but it's a pretty boring Laphroaig.
It is impressive how Laphroaig managed to release their distinctive tasting whiskeys when they are actually watered down. This stuff is lethal! For the true peat lovers.
Why would anyone want to drink something that smells of iodine, tastes like medicinal peat and finishes with more iodine! and this is the cask strength!
