Richard-ModernDrinking
Laphroaig Càirdeas 2019 Triple Wood Cask Strength
Single Malt — Islay, Scotland
Reviewed
August 5, 2019 (edited May 26, 2021)
The first of two Cairdeas samples kindly supplied by @LeeEvolved is this year’s release, the cask-strength Triple Wood. I’m not sure if I’ve ever tasted the regular bottling, so my only touch point going in is that I enjoyed the cask strength Quarter Cask edition a couple of years ago.
The nose is immediately appealing, nutty and treacly with a touch of peppery spice and cloves. Neat, it taste gorgeous, flavors of orange chocolate sandwiched between bursts of pepper. The finish is faint chocolate, dry and nutty. Despite the high ABV, which is 59.5%, contrary to the Distiller description, this is surprisingly easy to drink at cask strength. So if you’re comfortable consuming your whiskies at this power then you’re in for a treat. Personally, I prefer mine at 46-50% so that I can stretch my alcohol allowance over a couple of drams. Unfortunately, this doesn’t take water very well: diluting it to 50% amplifies the peat and reduces the texture and complexity. As such, I wouldn’t buy a bottle of this, but if you’re happy sipping it undiluted it easily warrants four stars. Triple thanks, Lee.
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@LeeEvolved Yes, I much prefer the finished version to the two cask-strengths they’ve done. No doubt we’ll see some new iterations in coming years now that the SWA has relaxed the rules. Perhaps next year’s will be a tequila edition. Thanks again for the sample.
Glad you got a chance to try it without having to buy a bottle. This one grew on me as I emptied the bottle over the course of 2-3 weeks. I wish Laphroaig would experiment more with finishing casks again with future Cairdeas- the core releases of these CS bottles are usually so well done they aren’t improved upon for the Feis Ile specials. Cheers.