I've bought this every year for the past three years since my whisky budget increased. That means, I have Warehouse 1, PX Cask, and this the White Port & Madeira Casks. I haven't looked at my past scores when writing this, so I don't know what rating I gave, but the PX Cask was fantastic, the Warehouse 1 was very good, and the White Port lands in the middle of those. This is where numeric scores maybe don't reflect reality and is why I'm not looking. What did I give the PX? Did I rate the Warehouse 1 accordingly? Is this score between them? Was the PX 4.75 and the Warehouse 1 4.25 and now this is 4.5? I'm not sure that it matters. The other two I opened in the year they came out. This one, I opened last week, 2024. A few months late, and without friends around me. Which feels wrong. My understanding is Cairdeas means friendship? Well, whatever. I'll share it soon enough. As soon as a whisky drinking friend visits. But now on my own, I'll type this up. Some initial thoughts. I wish I could have this blinded against something similar just to be sure that it's clearly a Laphroaig nose. It's saline and iodine, fresh sea salt like you've taken a cup of water out of the ocean and let it evaporate leaving behind only the silt. The White Port/Madeira imparts a sweet edge however, almost like a very fine, very high quality dry vermouth has given the Laphroaig in the glass it's blessing, like a fine mist of that vermouth is contained therein, as though a 1920s alcoholic whose had 5 martinis has has merely whispered the dry vermouth into the glass. There's almost the sense of gin finished in Islay barrels to the nose. Could just be me. Oh right, before I forget to mention it, there's a vein of peat smoke running throughout. Funny you forget the obvious, but this is a Laphroaig. On the tongue, it's sweet up front, vanilla with peaches and cream. The peat is still ever present along with that, and if you're not acclimated to that, it's likely all you're going to notice (I gave my wife a sniff and she said, it smells like all the other peated scotches you've served me, so it could be overwhelming here to the unconverted...plus it's 102 proof or thereabouts so it's strong). There's smoething grassy and sweet on the mid-palate like roasted asparagus with a tang of a sweeter vinaigrette, not balsamic, but something along those lines, it's escaping me. I'm enjoying thoroughly the mix of sweet and salty that's not a sherry sweetness but something else altogether, more of a dry sweetness that I'm assuming is the influence of the white port though I've never had white port. The finish is all smoke and pepper here though, with very little of the sweetness showing through and something salty lingering that's almost umami in character. I may be way off here, but it's a delectable dram, and I only wish I were sharing it with fellow Islay lovers because I know it would elicit a decent discussion. Yes, this is very good, very good. I think I may have only preferred the PX Cairdeas in 2021 because it met expectations a little more whereas this one is a horse of a different color and a little outside my experience not having the touch points with either white port or madeira to understand how those barrels may have influence the Laphroaig. All in all, it's one that fans of Laphroaig will want to try and those who dislike Islay should steer clear of. I would assume that goes without saying given the price, but with the number of people who give reviews like, "Yuck, peat!" I wouldn't put it past someone to drag the score down because they feel the need to weigh in when their opinion is unnecessary. Then again, in this age of social media, no one actually believes their opinion is unnecessary anymore. Have at it.