For the Laphroaig Oak Select, the Islay distillery has taken whisky from a number of different types of cask, including oloroso sherry butts, white American oak, Pedro Ximenez seasoned hoggies, quarter casks, and first-fill bourbon casks. Quite a selection, wouldn't you say? A laid-back addition to the Laphroaig core range of single malts.
Classic, medicinal peat notes up front, supported by citrus-y, chocolate-y sweet notes and soft barley.
The peat is there, but it's taking it easy and letting the bright notes of lemon, green apples and mint stand out. Darker baking spice notes develop further on.
Medium length, peat remaining in sight until it's over.
It doesn't pack a huge punch of peat, which might be just the ticket for introducing someone to the wonders of Islay's smoky expressions.
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This has some of the smoke/peat flavour associated with Laphroaig but is missing the luxurious smoky scent I love, that said at times I prefer it to the 10 year single malt for its smooth, less peated flavour, think it is a great introduction whisky before trying more heavily peated ones that can be overwhelming.
Ignoring the clueless fools who insist on submitting comparisons to TCP for every Islay malt, I feel the need to defend this one. Sure, it's not Laphroaig 10, but at the price I picked it up (£24), it's not half bad and, I'm sure, will mellow as the bottle progresses. Benefits from a good splash of water, but ignore the single malt snobbery on display here. Toffee/citrus on the nose, a pleasant (and surprisingly long) aftertaste, with plenty of apple and smoke. Really not bad by any stretch.
Laphroaig have scaled down the slightly medicinal taste to its advantage. This is a lovely simple malt which hasn't been "messed with" in this and that cask while still being intrinsically a smoky variety.
Do not buy this thinking it is a run of the mill scotch,and then leave terrible reviews, do your homework first please ! this is a heavy peated malted whisky with a salty, smoky iodine flavour, similar to Ardbeg, Talisker and other islay malts etc, it's not for everyone but i love Laphroaig, i would not even buy shelf blended whiskies
Not horrendous given the price (I paid £25) but I still wouldn't buy it again. You can find far better 'own brand' bottles for less than this. It's really not very good. It's cheap enough to try it for yourself, but unless you've recently had covid, I doubt you'll disagree.
