Whisky : Laphroaig 9 Year SMWS 29.272 “Fire your engines”

Country/Region : Scotland/Islay

ABV : 57.5%

Cask : 2nd Fill Ex-Bourbon

Age : 9 Years (Distilled June 2010)

Nose :  Medicinal-herbal, smoke, and maritime salt.  Sinus clearing blast of pine needles, Christmas trees, herbal horehound candies, black licorice, sarsaparilla, and juniper berries.  Burnt paper and debris from a firework filled evening along with salty mangrove swamp and plastic fishing lures.

Palate : Medium bodied with a bold profile of honey, herbs, and smoke.  Salt hit the palate with a blast of herbal spice; black pepper, mint, pine needles, rosemary, thyme, and sea biscuits.  Notes of Mr. Clean, pine sap, junipers, car wax, and honey came through with more time.  Water brought an interesting creaminess to the spirit and highlighted charcoal smoke and blackened herbs.

Finish :  Lingering pine and sweet sugars.

Score : 4

Mental Image : Christmas Tree Bonfire Day After

Notes : A special US-only release just in time for the 2020 holiday season this Lahproaig was intensely herbal with loads of pine shining through at different points.  I think some might describe it as medicinal as the herbal notes occasionally gave the impression of herbal cough syrup or a hospital cleaning solvent.  While I did not really care for the herbal inclinations of this Laphroaig, there were three people out of a dozen or so at a local virtual tasting who nominated this for their favorite of the evening.  Despite my sub-average score, there were in fact people who really enjoyed this.  One of those tasters even described the profile as “mouthwash-esque” and gave it high marks for that.

Overall, I like my younger Frogs to be a bit more mellow, or at least not quite so herbal.  This was definitely a perfect winter time dram though and it surfaced all sorts of memories of Christmas tree shopping and decorating.  I think this would have paired beautifully with a smoldering fire place.