A lot of strong flavours in this sherry-influenced Laphroaig. This one stays on the sweet side of becoming bitter with plenty of savoury elements redolent of bbq and char-cooking. A great winter / fire-side or even Christmas Dram! One to keep you warm on a cold night. 86/100
Wow, what a dram! Usually in older whisky I find the peat influence mellowed and a lot of wood influence, this one appears to have been slightly rejuvenated by the second maturation allowing the peat to burst out in an array of flavours. The nuttiness is also there but in a variety of guises and the herbal woody notes just seem to really work with everything else going on. I just wish I had so much more of this one… 92/100
A beautiful whisky from Laphroaig that really tames that fiery powerful peaty character into something sublime. A really delicious dram that reveals sweet woody bourbon character married perfectly with gentle peat and clean iodine. I could drink this all day. 88/100
This 2012 Cairdeas is now only available at auction and I imagine the price per bottle may have doubled at least, I have heard that this essentially is a souped-up version of the standard Quarter Cask expression from Laphroaig so I expect I will seek this expression out before too long. I will continue to purchase the future Cairdeas bottlings as they represent both great quality and value as well as a little more unusual expressions from one of my favourite distilleries. 88/100
Laphroaig’s no-nonsense intense peaty style actually lends itself rather well to cask strength whisky. I don’t know if the quoted 40ppm phenolics just subtly blend into what I think of as the stereotypical Laphroaig taste or if their distillation process and maturation removes the halogenated [chloro-phenol] most medicinal/TCP-esque nasal offenders? Either way this one seriously warms the cockles! 89/100
The subtlety and smoothness of the finish, the complexity of this in the mouth and the fire with which it starts combine to make this a pretty spectacular dram. I haven’t tasted a Laphroaig that packs in so much, yet finishes so smoothly. 90/100
On the face of this one I would strongly recommend a port finish Laphroaig could easily make its way into their standard range even at a tamer non cask strength, however I wouldn’t want to take anything away from the shine of this bottle. This is my current go to bottle when I either want a kick in the tastebuds or have several hours to sit and mull purely over a single dram. 90/100
