Distilled & Bottled by Laphroaig
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Region: Islay
Type: Single Malt
ABV: 59.6%
Age: NAS
Color: Burnt Amber
This is the 2019 bottling of Laphroaig’s Cairdeas (“Friendship” in Gaelic), an annual release during Islay’s Feis Ile celebration. It is basically a cask strength version of Laphroaig’s Triple Wood. This whisky inside is bottled without chill filtration or added color.
Tasting Notes
Nose: Sweet and rich up front. You’ll immediately be able to tell this is high proof as it makes itself known early on. There’s cinnamon and clove spice followed by raisin and delicious caramel candy. Creamy notes of vanilla with coconut are detected and eventually transition to salted nuts, campfire smoke and peaty Laphroaig “band-aids.”
Palate: Oily and viscous on the palate. The caramel sweetness continues from the nose and then transitions to spice notes of salt, pepper and baking spices.
Finish: A warming finish with great length. Lingering notes of fried bacon, Laphroaig multi-surface lemon cleaner, smoldering tobacco, bonfire embers at the beach and some roasted nuts. I also find a little more of the iodine/band-aid note from the nose.
Rating: 10/10
Conclusion: This whisky is like eating a sweet and nutty dessert on the veranda of a coastal, 3-Star Michelin restaurant while a medical supply truck burns down across the street. Is this a perfect whisky? I have no idea. Is this the whisky I’ve enjoyed drinking more than any of the other bottles I have reviewed so far? Maybe, I don’t really know, but what I do know is there’s nothing else I want from this bottle of peaty, sweet and spicy goodness.