This whisky was purchased based on the recommendation of my esteemed colleague, @ScotchingHard . His review clearly asserted this product to be a weapon of mass destruction for peat delivery, and second only to humans in the “evolutionary” chain of miraculous creations. Well, I’m here to neither confirm nor deny the accuracy of these claims that he, himself, describes as “hyperbolic,” but only to offer, maybe, a somewhat more reasoned perspective to the situation. It didn’t require a twist of the arm to spring for the batch 8, 59.9% offering, since Laphroaig 10 is my second favorite go-to dram behind Lagavulin 16; but while standing in line to pay I thought, “Gee, won’t this just be a more robust version of the watered-down 10 year old that I already own and like?” And, secondly, I pondered, “Isn’t my wife going to beat the shit out of me after she sees how much money I’ve blown on whisky this month?” So, with mixed feelings and after careful consideration, I took one last look at the bottle and decided to………………….just pay for the damn thing. While driving home I rationalized, “Ok, I paid 50% more for the same product with 40% more alcohol (buzz factor…check). Now, if I can get 20-30% more smoke I win.” So, with all of the aforementioned in mind, I’m here to report the cask strength, 10 year old Laphroaig to be a fantastic dram and proportionally better than its little brother; however, still not the holy grail of peat smoke I continue to seek. I rate it a solid 4.25 stars.