Whisky : Laphroaig 18 Year, Cadenhead’s Authentic Collection

Country/Region : Scotland/Islay

ABV : 55.9%

Cask : Bourbon Hogshead

Age : 18 Year (Distilled 1998, Bottled Oct. 2016)

Nose : Medicinal, fruity, and spicy. A spicy melange of overripe pineapple, pine, and white pepper funk. Cinnamon and nutmeg hung in the background with metallic notes of a rusted iron grill grate. Strawberry herbal jam with the faint antiseptic of pool chemicals.  

Palate : Medium-bodied with excellent viscosity and notes of herbs, pine, and fruit. A trip into an unfinished pinewood attic in search of a Christmas wreath— loads of herbal woody pine notes. Menthol, pepper, and bitter orange on the mid-palate with a pleasant salinity. Toward the end were waxy fruits with orange, lemon zest, and tar. Water brought forward bitter fruits with a strong mineral-like sweet rust.

Finish : Lingering fruit and chlorine.

Score : 6

Mental Image : Christmas Decoration Deep Storage

Notes : This Laphroaig reminded me immediately of the 9 Year SMWS bottled as a US exclusive last winter (28.272 Fire your engines”).  It had a ton of these pine-herbal notes that veered between medicinal and Christmas. The profile on this one leaned more into Christmas on the palate, while the nose was decidedly sweeter and fruitier. A few drops of water brought more fruit out on the palate, but that herbal undercurrent gave the fruity notes a bitter edge. The impression of sweet rust permeated the experience. After 18 Years in the cask, the dram remained chock full of punchy Laphroaig flavor notes— though I missed some of the more industrial maritime flavors.

I tasted this first with our local whisky club this past summer and then waited until the weather began to turn a bit cooler before I came back to it for my review. There were a few votes for this as best of the evening when we did an all-Laphroaig lineup. Whether one was a fan or not depended a lot on how much appeal those herbal pine notes held. Not coincidentally, the same people who loved the aforementioned SMWS bottle also loved this one. It certainly puts one in the mood for Christmas.

The other bottles from that Laphroaig tasting included a 15 Year from Hunter Laing, a 13 from Cadenhead’s, and a 10 Year from SMWS 29.92 “Sweet and smoke intensity”.  I scored them a 6, 8, 7, respectively.