The Bottle: Fairly standard Laphroaig fare. For this Cairdeas expression(and likely others) they have forgone the traditional green glass in favor of clear, letting you get a good look at the spirit inside. The spirit itself has some bronze overtones to it, which play nicely against the red portions of the label specific to this Madeira release. All-in-all, no real surprises here. In the Glass: Burnished bronze. With a few drops of water, which you will need seeing as how this is cask strength at 51.6% ABV, a nice Scottish Mist begins to develop. On the Nose: There's the traditional medicinal, peaty hit that is associated with the standard 10 year old; but it's wrapped up in what reads as a fruit compote. There is a very strong marine backdrop to this... harbors, sea salt, crusty sailors and smoked kippers. It reads very much like a seaside fruit-stand that specializes in smoked marmalade. For those of you Laphroaig fans who appreciate that TCP hit, there's nothing here to be mad at :) Taste: Assertive. Medicinal. Fruity. Peat. This one attacks your palate as if you had somehow insulted it's mother. Water is definitely required to tame this down to a level where the nuance comes out. There's the whole Laphroaig peaty thing that we all know and love; but the madeira maturation really does start to shine after the glass has about 10 minutes to open up. It almost starts to get into Longrow Red territory, but this is more "minerals and medicine" if you catch my drift. The finish is dominated by sweet marine notes and sea stones. Less Talisker, more Spanish merchant ship. My guess is that it's a little less than 10 years old, given that it's a NAS; but it doesn't seem to suffer from it. That second maturation in madeira really does fill in any of the gaps in flavor that would be left behind from shortened maturation time frame. For fans of Laphroaig, this does not disappoint. Another in a great range of specialized maturation releases from the Cairdeas line. (Laphroaig, if you're taking suggestions, I'd love to see a Calvados finished one!)