jonwilkinson7309
Laphroaig Lore
Single Malt — Islay, Scotland
Reviewed
April 18, 2020 (edited March 25, 2021)
A number of good recent Laphroaig reviews have reminded me that (a) I hadn't had Laphroaig in quite a while, and (b) I had two Laphroaig samples waiting to be consumed - Lore and An Cuan Mor. I started with the Lore.
From the first nosing and sip, it both impressed me and surprised me. It has a deep richness, a meat char peat, a nice fruity sweetness playing in the background, and the trademark medicinal notes at low volume. Overall, it drifts a bit closer to Ardbeg than any other Laphroaig I've had. In fact, if I had tasted this blind, I'm not entirely sure I would have correctly identified it as a Laphroaig.
I was surprised enough that I decided a reality check was in order, so I opened the An Cuan Mor. I'll review that one separately, but the ashy peat and medicinal notes jumped out at me, confirming my initial impressions of the Lore - it's a Laphroaig, but a bit different.
One caveat here is that I've never had any of the old Laphroaigs, and apparently the Lore has some has some old juice in it. So perhaps it is a typical Laphroaig - a typical older Laphroaig.
Regardless, this is a very nice whiskey, and well worth the price. At $100-120 its just a shade less expensive than some of the great "18s" - Highland Park, Talisker, and Caol Ila, but in my opinion it holds it's own in that league.
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@Richard-ModernDrinking that's really interesting, I'm wondering if they over bought and are trying to free up capital or if the price is actually going down. As I said, I'm not seeing stock of this being replaced by me, so as it sells out it's just gone.
@dhsilv2 Only seeing one quote for $75 now, in IL. But it’s $80 at lots of NJ retailers.
Where are you seeing this at 75? Mind you, locally I'm not seeing this on shelves at all these days. @Richard-ModernDrinking
@Richard-ModernDrinking I was worried that might happen. I have a newer and older bottling and might open the newer one first to find out i think
I loved the first batch of this but the taste I had of a more recent bottle didn’t stand up to my memory of it. I wonder if they’ve brought down the average age; that could explain the sharp cut in price to circa $75.
Great assessment, Im working a bottle of this now for review soon. really cannot go wrong with Islay imo
@cascode Very interesting info about the blend. I can only imagine what the reaction would have been if the Laphroaig 18 was replaced by Laphroaig 6. Blending fascinates me. The ability of small percentage components to shine through and small alterations having big impacts highlight the fact that blending is truly an art.
@cascode Ah again interesting and yes you are right, sums it up well. I think they nailed the abv as well. All round good NAS effort at a fair price (its around $95USD here at the mo)
@Soba45 Yes, the trick with this one is the skillful blending of young whisky to give a high smoke content, good middle-aged whisky to provide a firm structure, and old whisky to give it depth and panache. It's literally (in the proper meaning of that word) a masterpiece.
@cascode Ah interesting. Makes sense as fits with my general rule of liking the peated drams younger before the cask sucks the life out of the peat and the sherry drams older so they can contribute more to the whisky i.e. I'm a maximum flavour junkie!
I was surprised by this one and it impressed me as an exceptionally well crafted vatting of malts that shows a real master's hand at work. It does contain a quantity of old Laphroaig, but it's mainly younger juice with some of the content being 6-8 years old. A brand ambassador at a tasting event told us that if you averaged all the components by quantity and age it would come out to around 8-10 years for any given batch. Of course it would have to be labelled as a 6 year old, so given the prejudice against whisky of that age they decided to make it a NAS - particularly as it was replacing an 18 year old.
@PBMichiganWolverine @jonwilkinson7309 This is high on my wishlist. Nice review. I haven’t had a deep peated in some time too. May have to dig one out soon. Stay well.
Yeah I love this one. I have 1 bottle of the 18 and 2 of the lore in stock which shows how much!
They got rid of the 18, and replaced it with NAS Lore, but to their credit—-it’s a damn good NAS