ScotchingHard
Laphroaig Lore
Single Malt — Islay, Scotland
Reviewed
May 31, 2020 (edited March 25, 2021)
Bottled in 2017
It took me a long time to try this. I was troubled by the thought that the supposed spiritual successor of Laphroaig 18 year old, one of my favorite whiskies, had no age statement, and the suspicious claim that it is “the richest ever Laphroaig!” I just thought, oh dear, Laphroaig 18 never tried to be the richest. I was fearful this “Lore” would be an amateur PX finish.
My first impression of this whisky was that, I’ll be damned, it reminds me of Laphroaig 18. Medicinal smoke with an oily mouthfeel and grapefruit-flavored candies. And then I had it alongside Laphroaig 18, and it was a big disappointment. It’s was like that classic Katt Williams skit about how your Chrysler 300 looks sort of like a Bentley Phantom, until you pull up next to a Bentley Phantom. Laphroaig Lore is not Laphroaig 18. It reminded me of Laphroaig 18 because I had forgotten how awesome Laphroaig 18 was. And then I compared Lore with an older Laphroaig 10, bottled around 2012, and the Laphroaig 10 was much better.
Laphroaig today is not Laphroaig yesterday. The difference is as stark as comparing something that is Scotch with something that is not. The Laphroaig 10 from 2012 is a beautiful, confident whisky that lets you approach it. Newer Laphroaigs, from the modern Laphroaig 10 to their Cairdeas bait, to this Laphroaig Lore is manic, insecure divebar trash that tries to approach you with the subtlety of Cthulhu. Laphroaig’s sad use of sherry casks is just shouting drunken nonsense to hide spirit of decreasing quality, like mini short jeans and flavored lipstick to hide a hollow personality.
Ahem, that is still to say, if you turn your brain off, Laphroaig Lore can be competent, and even enjoyable. But, as soon, as you line this up with some real whisky, Lore just becomes this loud pink bubblegum pop! that you’ll be wise to avoid. If you want a Laphroaig today, go the independent bottler route.
Score: 0 (forgettable)
How much does a bottle cost: $90-140
How much do I think a bottle is worth?: $50
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@Benji-Robert Agree completely! It's like when you have a good steak and ruin it with steak sauce. Just leave it alone!
@ScotchingHard I truly feel when anybody gets truly good at something in masterful sense--think chefs with top ingredients, or distillers with access to barrel volume--It seems the real trick is to get people trying to appreciate how often stepping back and letting nature shine is harder than it sounds. Good brown is like a van gogh; the parts make up the sum but it's done so tightly it suggests conversely.
@ScotchingHard well I've got access to both and have had both the green and white 18's. That said fair enough if you don't like this profile. You're just biased and we're all that about some profiles. I'd agree things were better in the past, but lore is so much better than dark cove. There at least on the early edtions was some real quality older whisky in there.
@dhsilv2 I have a sour spot in my palate I suppose for this particular whisky style. I also rated Dark Cove 2 stars, although I felt a bottle was worth $60 instead of $50. These two whiskies have a sherry coating, an artificial and superficial sweetness that rubs me the wrong way; it's disjointed flavors like those in an amateur infinity bottle. So the last Laphroaig 18 was a white tube with little to no sherry influence. If you go one design earlier, to the green tube Laphroaig 18, that has wonderful dessert flavors that go all the way into the soul of the whisky. Same feeling for old Ardbeg Uigeadails and Ardbeg Ardbog. They just don't make them like they used to.
Just to clarify, you forced me to pour a dram. I think lore very much was going for an almost "Dark Cove" expression which I recall a lot of hate by purists for, and now he gets love beyond logic. This is a dessert sweet sherry finished up front whisky with the back of some quality aged casks that give is a long and very high quality finish. That said I understand why many want the main cource (the 18) and not a dessert (lore).
Wow, rather negative review. I'd agree without doing a side by side of the 18's (it's on my bucket list). Still this isn't the 18, it isn't like the 18 (beyond the malt and having some aged stuff in there), but it's imo an outstanding scotch. Certainly, better than the 10 imo. I just really like the casks used here myself.
@Scott_E I think the casks are definitely worse but it’s also trying to engineer mass appeal with blending and ADHD cask finishing. They think they can produce a certain flavor du jour instead of letting a flavor profile emerge from quality maturation in a quality cask.
Disappointed to learn. Lack of quality casks, change is blending, or something else, in your opinion?
I had the an equally bad experience with the Laphroaig Select. Boy was that disappointing. What was even more shocking with that was that I felt like it didn’t even attempted to cover its weak and bleak character.