Laphroaig Lore – 48% abv

Info: Crafted by Laphroaig Distillery Manager John Campbell, Lore combines a number of casks including first-fill Bourbon barrels, quarter casks and Oloroso Sherry hogsheads. Campbell has said that Laphroaig Lore is a mixture of 7 to 21 year old liquids with 3 more ages in between them.

Colour: Full gold with orange tints. Great oily legs.

Nose: A very relaxing and familiar Islay peat nose meets you, it’s not totally in your face, it’s relaxed and restrained, but very much there at the front. There’s hints of the TCP iodine notes that you might expect, those sticking plaster smells you might be looking for, but there’s also plenty more going on which, for me, is so much more interesting… there’s smoked bbq’d bacon notes, young virgin oak notes and a milky creaminess, along with sweet caramels. There’s also old costal notes, think sea breeze through a harbour full of boats with old salt encrusted ropes. I really really like the nose on this, you can keep smelling it for ages. There’s definitely a well balanced meeting of young and old whiskies here. Hints of coal.
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Laphroaig 14 year old – Douglas Laing’s Old Particular – Feis Ile 2015 edition – 48.4% abv

Info: This is 14 years old, 48.4% abv. It’s a single cask refill butt DL10694 yielding 636 bottles.
Colour: Bright golden straw.
Nose: It’s got a good peaty nose with a slight tcp edge, but it’s sweet enough, quite summer fruity beneath it all.
Palate: Fairly thick oils, sweet & rich. Earthy peat and tcp – slightly more gentle than official bottles maybe, I prefer this, a nice abv level.  A slight floralness lingers.
Finish: Long and gentle with a peat reek finish. Fresher oak notes hang around, along with a slight costalness.
Thoughts: Better than the official bottlings in my opinion, easier to dram with even at the higher ABV. Nice work. No water needed.
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I’ve been lucky enough to recently join a Twitter Tasting to review the four core malts of the Laphroaig range, i.e. 10 Years Old, Quarter Cask, Triple Wood and 18 Years Old. There’s many others out there, but these are the main stays of the brand and generally easy to find in the shops and at fairly affordable prices. Let’s take a deeper look…
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Laphroaig 1998 / 15yo – 60.8%

Colour: Deep gold with reddy hues.

Nose: Damp, musty, earthy dunnage oake, smoke whiffs, gentle trademark TCP whiffs. Slightly closed by the high ABV with a sweet winter fruity background that takes a second to pick out because of the peat, but is there in lashings once you’ve caught on to it. Slight ash notes, from the cask no doubt, almost like cigarette ash (but in a good way – coming from a non-smoker).
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