It’s been a while since my first taste of Laphroaig 10 year: two years and two months to be exact. Since then I’ve had the Quarter Cask which I didn’t care much for. But this - this is pretty amazing stuff. This review is of Laphroaig 10 year cask strength batch 11. It’s bottled at 58.6% ABV and pours a nice medium gold in the glass. It has an oily coating that hangs on like glue and produces lots of long legs that take forever to form when you give it a spin. Some watery droplets appear after a while. I did not get any of the stereotypical Laphroaig notes of tennis balls or rubber when I opened this. Just a nice puff of smoke and peat. Initially the nose was strong peat smoke with little else; little to no burn. A month after opening, the nose is pretty much the same with some hints of citrus and slight malty sweetness appearing behind the peat. Really pretty pleasant. A bit of water enhanced the citrus/sweetness, but more than a 1/4 tsp. per ounce killed the nose. In the mouth my initial impression was of dry, flat smoke. Its pretty hot neat; oily with a thick mouthfeel. A month after opening there is a noticeable malty sweetness. The smoke is present but not overpowering by any means. More sweetness than I found in the standard 10 year. Water really brings out the best of this dram in my opinion. A 1/4 tsp. to an ounce of whisky brings out a sweet smoky malt that is just about perfect. The finish is long BBQ meat and ashy smoke. There is some brine in there as well. Water helps lengthen the finish. This is probably the first whisky I’ve had that truly benefits from “just a few drops” of water. Being the nerd I am I tend to measure everything - in this case “a few drops” is 1/4 tsp. Any more than that and all that sweet smoky malt starts to just fade away. This bottle was $55 online at acespirits.com. That’s a great value imo. I’m really loving this dram. 4.25/5. Cheers!