Laphroaig 10 Year Cask Strength (Batch 1)

Campfire on the nose and cranberries on the taste with a long finish. Love the redundancy on the other descriptions. "Peat with some smoke." Lol

Looooved the 10 yr bottling. Was so afraid to try the so called palate killer. And tried it shortly after and found that I have such an affinity for peated whiskey. One sniff of this and I remember why. Nose: Gosh, compared to most the other whiskies I’ve had over the past few months, it’s that deep dark raisiny/ rubbery/ meaty smell that I love. Nothing like peated whiskey comes close to giving me this elated feeling to taking a sip... but let’s stick to the nose a bit longer. The nose begins with a combination of dark dried fruits, raisin, prunes, and smoked meats rubbed with something sweet like teriyaki. There’s crisp zesty citrus notes in the mid especially if you give the dram quick sniffs. You get that rubber bandaid medicinal smell towards the end and some funky must. Makes me thirsty! Palate: on first sip you’ll definitely get the smoky, medicinal, antiseptic rubbery taste first. Occasionally I’ll catch this tobacco smoke wisp. I can definitely taste the Oak that is sitting in the mids. This definitely has a bigger bite and kick to it then the regular 10. Lots of bitter/ pepper/. You don’t get quite the same sweet vanilla ending on the regular bottling. This is definitely a dark chocolate finish with spice. The brine and salt shows up once the liquid has run its course and settled in your stomach. Mouth feels dry and like I’ve been eating over salted popcorn after a while. Some people like whiskey for the taste. I enjoy it as well. But I more enjoy the journey of discovery and challenge. This is definitely the latter. If I wanted to sip on something I didn’t have to spend too much time thinking about, like casual conversation. I’d pick up a classic Irish whiskey or a bourbon cocktail. But if you’re looking for a new experience and a bit of danger/ something to write home to mom about. This is it right here.

I had a pour of this at a whisky picknick. This was the most recent batch 12. It really surprised me positively. I had like 3 or 4 different Laphroaigs prior to this but this one is my favorite so far. That’s probably because of it being cask strength. The color was so umber red that itassume that I is colored. So I will just ignore it. But the nose, palate and finish were really good. It starts of unexpectedly smooth and sweet on the nose with that characteristic Islay peat but just at the right level so it doesn’t overwhelm you with any chemical or plastic aromas. It is really present but leaves the main stage for its nice caramel, vanilla and fruity aspects. It has been a couple of days so I can’t really recall any specifics but it reminded me of a more intense, sweeter and red berry driven Laphroaig Brodir. It just goes way deeper. After the first sips the nose changes dramatically and opens up to other very nice flavors and some iodine with some sea salt sensation. Water flattens it out a bid and release more of the cask wood. A very fine whisky.

Amazing complexity. Sweet and smoky. Dried fruits, syrupy peat. Can taste the wood.