PBMichiganWolverine
Laphroaig pre-warrant 10yr 1990
Single Malt — islay, Scotland
Reviewed
June 23, 2023 (edited August 29, 2023)
Side by side :
Modern day Laphroaig 10, 3 cl pour vs a 1990 Laphroaig 10 pre-royal warrant.
First up: the pre-warrant
I had to let it sit out in my glencairn for a good 1/2 hour, seems as if it just needed some breathing space after being bottled up for over 30 years. But once it got some air, the flavors came alive.
The peat is muted. More like a 16 or 18yr old. There’s more fruit on the palette, just balanced better than modern era. If I tasted this blind, i would have guessed its a Laphroaig 18. It’s that refined.
Next : modern day Laphroaig 10
I let it air out just as long. For apples to apples comparison, even though I literally just bought this bottle yeaterday.
Peat is more astringent. More medicinal. Not better or worse. Just different…more specifically comes across younger, harsher, wearing it peat at the forefront. Gone are the orchard fruits.
Conclusion: no contest…pre-warrant is more elegant, refined and balanced.
Not sure why. Better cask management? Older stock? @ContemplativeFox suggeted maybe some sherry casking? Not sure… maybe @cascode can provide some wisdom
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Nice review, and what an experience. Would love to try that.
@PBMichiganWolverine Thanks, but my knowledge is nothing special. It's all out there, you just need to read the right books, visit distilleries and talk to the folks who actually make the whisky.
@cascode as always, simply amazed by the wealth of knowledge.
@cascode sorry I missed this earlier …this new app is useless. Keep missing posts from friends, but instead am fed posts from folks I don’t know.
@PBMichiganWolverine What a privilege to taste a 1990 bottle of Laphroaig! The elegance you sensed would mostly be down to its age. In another thread you recently mentioned your bottle of Ardbeg Lord of the Isles and I said it is probably better than ever and that the smoke would not have fallen off. That is, of course, the case for a whisky that has already spent 25 years in casks because most of the phenol decay it would ever undergo would already have happened by the time it was bottled. It would lose a little more smokiness in the bottle but you would probably not be able to tell until it had been stored for a very long time. However in the case of this Laphroaig we’re talking about a 10 year old expression, and 5-10 years is the prime of life for smoky whisky. The phenols have rounded off by then but have not broken down significantly so in comparison it will experience greater phenol decay while in the bottle. Phenols decay through oxidisation but also through natural breakdown in anaerobic conditions so if you had opened this one after 10-15 years you would have noticed it had become a little more subtle and rounded, and after 30 years it’s not at all surprising that it now tastes like a Laphroaig 18 or maybe even a 25. As the phenol compounds decay they cease to have a forceful smoky impact and instead you notice the fruity character of the Laphroaig distillate, because the fruity esters are more robust. In addition, phenols partly decay into compounds that are themselves the building blocks for further complex fruity-aroma compounds.