This was a dream bottle for me, so I don't know if I'm giving it a 3.75 because it failed to live up to my expectations, or if I'm giving it a 3.75 because I'm being objective and honest with myself that it's simply not as good a whisky as I might have expected. I hope it's clear from what I just wrote that I'm a fan of Laphroaig and peated whiskies in general. You know how sometimes you're a peat fan and you read a 2-star review of one of your favorite whiskies and the comment is, "I don't like peat!" and you're thinking, then why the fuck did you chime in in the first place you rank amateur? Well, to each their own. All I'm saying is, I'm the intended audience for Laphroaig Cask Strength. I love peat. I love Laphroaig 10. I love the last two Carideas bottles, the PX and the Warehouse 1. I love the standard Ardbeg bottlings. I love the Lagavulin Distiller's Edition. I suppose you can say I haven't had them all, but I've had enough to know it's my favorite style whisky. So why, you might ask, do I rate this 3.75? Let me begin by telling you about McGlinchey's. You see, there's a bar by that name in Philadelphia. It's a dive bar. And when the city passed an ordinance intended to ban smoking inside bars and restaurants, McGlinchey's found a way around that, some kind of dispensation, I don't know the technicalities of it. All I know is that in the early aughts, my friends were smokers and they liked to convene there. Now I'm not a smoker myself and wasn't then, but I'd go for the sake of camaraderie and I'd come home smelling like the bottom of an ashtray. And that's the problem with a straight pour of this without any water: the nose is lovely, the palate is lovely, and the finish is like licking the bottom of an ashtray. In other words, 3.75 as a straight pour without adding water and maybe even grading on a curve when it comes to that finish. So, in short, to make the finish work, this needs water. Without it, the nose is tar, ash and leather. The usual iodine and band-aid aroma I expect from Laphroaig 10 simply isn't there. And I like the nose without water. Without water, the palate adds the slightest edge of caramel sweetness to the tar, leather and ash, and that's nice as well. But it's just that final note, the ashtray note, that without water, ends up detracting from the whole experience. Now I opened this on New Year's Eve last week after tasting several other whiskies, and I wondered if that tainted the experience, and I have to say, to some extent it did. This ashy finish was worse after an evening sampling sweeter whiskies. When I drink this straight as the first whisky of the evening, the ash isn't as prominent and I'm grateful for that, but it's still present and biting, and simply put, I don't appreciate it. So, you add a splash of water and what happens. Well, the nose I like becomes a nose I like less but still find interesting. Tasting this with my brother-in-law over the weekend, he put his finger right on the button of adding water to the nose: "Smells like shorted out electronics." And he's right. And also, he should know because he's an electrical engineer. My dad was with us and he offered up, ozone before a lightning storm. Which is about as poetic as my dad gets, bless him. Is that better than tar, leather, and ash? I leave it to you to decide, but I've got to be honest, I've never smelled ozone or shorted-out electronics in a whisky so that was a first, and Laphroaig 10 CS deserves points just for that. With water, the caramel note pushes the leather and tar to the background of the palate, and the ash is all but gone on the finish, leaving it more peppery. So overall, if I could merge the nose of the straight version of this, with the palate and finish of this with a water splash, that would likely push this up to 4.25. As is, I'm sticking with a 3.75, but that's a 3.75 against other Islay whiskies. If I'm going against all other whiskies I've tasted, it's closer to a 4-star rating. Three years ago I had my eye on this, but at the time, it was beyond my budget. Now, it's right in the budget and though there was a limited release near me, I was all over it. Am I glad I got my hands on this? Definitely. Would I buy it again? You bet your ass. Do I prefer the Warehouse 1 despite the fact that that one seemed divisive among fans? Yes, I do. And I may buy another bottle of that if it's still around next month. Nevertheless, I wouldn't pass this up either. It's 100% unique. Ozone, my friends. Burnt electronics. Have you ever heard the like?