Let’s not muck about, Laphroaig is serious whisky. Tonight a limited edition expression released in mid-2021, matured for 16 years in American oak casks. Just my third Laphroaig I am excited coming off the heels of my worst scored distiller whisky tasting. N: Oh boy (the same words I opened Lore with)! Rich and captivating I am instantly pulled into the glass. Soft yet powerful the peat grabs hold with dark meatiness, slightly plastic iodine, and a handful of freshly torn herbs. Theres so much more to this though, a gentle sweetness of pastry and orchard fruit. Still more unfolds with an earthy petrichor and aged leathery oak. P: Oily and ashy texture laden with brine. Chilli and pepper beautifully compliment soft peat smoke, light malt and charred BBQ meat ends. A juicy mid profile delivers balancing fruit with chocolate creaminess filling the edges. The spirit lifts with a zesty, bright and borderline floral freshness. The maritime presence continues with a mineralic to metallic flutter. F: Medium-long. Stony minerals, brine, ashy embers and smoky black tea. There may even be a little honey or sugary flourish too. Wonderful. My faith in whisky was shook by my last entry, faith restored. This is undeniably good, does it have faults, perhaps. Does it lean slightly bitter and spicy, maybe. Am I qualified to judge them, I strongly suspect not. Less ‘raw’ than the standard 10 but slightly less refined than Lore, this comfortably sits as a slowly developing powerhouse of depth, subtlety, and richness. The smoky, meaty, and heavy sounding flavours somehow perform a masterstroke of remaining bright and vivid with an uplifting warmth. This is everything whisky should be, engaging and thought provoking. Textures, aromas, and flavours all combine to deliver a lovely treat on a chilly autumn evening. Distiller whisky taste #174 [Pictured here with a Eurypterid. This critter, also known as a sea scorpion, is from the Silurian (~440-420 Ma) Bertie Formation in New York. Eurypterids are an extinct group of organisms related to modern horseshoe crabs and include the largest known arthropods to have ever lived at up to 2.5 m long. Formidable predators of the shallow, warm, seas they called home they also possessed a dual respiratory system and may have been the planets first animals to crawl out of the oceans and onto the land. ] Laphroaig running scores: Laphroaig 10: 4/5 Laphroaig Lore: 4.5/5 Laphroaig 16: 4.25/5