Whisky festival pro tip: There's often a special bottle or two lurking among the core lineups that the distillery representatives are offering at their tables. Often it's something stashed under the table that can be coaxed out after you've paid lip service to the core range and wondered out loud how it compares to that new limited edition you've read about. Sometimes it can be hiding in plain sight, inside the tube of a regular bottling. But if you're at the Laphroaig table, check the Wellington boots. That's where, amid a peat field diaorama, I recognized the red loop of the 2016 Cairdeas just about visible inside one green wellie. And was that a golden hoop I spied in the second wellie? Could it be the new Cairdeas, I asked the kilted fellow filling glasses at the Astor Center Whisky Spectacular, who turned to be none other than brand ambassador Simon Brooking? Indeed it was, he said, fresh from the Islay festival. And what a lovely treat it turned out to be. I've posted two dismissive notes here about the Quarter Cask in as many days, but this cask strength version is a different beast. It's sweet and oily, and the drying tannins of the core version are mostly obscured by the rich honey flavors that linger. It's hard to make nuanced judgements in such circumstances, but this is unmistakably a good Laphroaig and worth checking out when it hits the stores in August.