My final entry in the Laphroaig core lineup is the expression that comes with the training wheels. The Select. The bare bones offering. Not a ton to say here other than this is the budget option. Let’s check it out. Nose: Heavy hazelnut. Campfire smoke and bandaid. Ash and rubber. Some salted caramel. Wintergreen. Milk chocolate. Apple cider. Black pepper and cinnamon. Palate: A little ballpark soft pretzel and hookah. Sea salt and brine. Caramel, vanilla, and toffee. Milk chocolate. More apple cider. Spearmint. Finish: Hazelnut. Vanilla and caramel. Heavy on the salted caramel and saltwater taffy. Bandaid and iodine. Cinnamon and black pepper. Spearmint. Sea salt. Very standard Laphroaig profile. Just a bit watered down. I like this. But I can also see how this would be designed for use in smoky cocktails. Because the 10 is their entry level, flagship offering, and it does everything better than this. At $48, it’s not a bad value. I think this should be capped at $40, but I guess this isn’t out of line with inflation. You can absolutely skip this one and go right to the 10 year, but this is by no means a bad whisky. 2.75/5.