Laphroaig 40 yo 1960 / 2001 42.4% vs Laphroaig 28 yo 44.4% (2018)
Laphroaig 40 yo 1960 / 2001 42.4%
I avoid using the word smooth, but in this case it seems especially apt. Long age has weathered this whisky into a gentle and homogenous blend of gentle smoke, clean seaside, dried celery, pine dust, white sand, flinty earth, and perhaps just one or two mango slices. Most delicate. There are Rosebanks way bigger than this. To be honest I really like where the nose is going but its a little feeble. On the tongue, the fruit juice, salt, earthy resins and oily peat manage a quiet hurrah, but the whole is unfortunately past its prime, and I’m not sure its just the abv. 88 pts
Laphroaig 28 yo 44.4% ~ bottled 2018
Good one. One of those from the lighter years at Laphroaig, so more seaside than bonfires. Hemp rope, waxed canvas, bruised stone fruit, medical tinctures, white ash, lit coals, clean rubber, old wax sticks, saltwater, and a little washed up seaweed. Not a bold whisky by any measure. A sort of light earthy-rooty oil, and saltier on the tongue, dried leaves and bark, cardamom and fruit infusions. From an interesting mish-mash of casks, but it doesn’t show in the whisky, which I count as a very positive thing. 88 pts
Whiskyrific RSS
- Benriach 33 yo 1977 / 2011 #9119 45.7% for Asta Morris vs Benriach 35 yo 1976 / 2012 #8804 54.9%
- Lagavulin Distiller’s Edition 1994 / 2010 lgv.4/498 43% vs Lagavulin Friends of the Classic Malts 12 yo 1995 / 2008 48%
- Glen Grant 27 yo 1955 / 1982 Samaroli 43% vs Glenury Royal 24 yo 1966 / 1990 Cadenhead 53.8%
- Lochside 22 yo 1979 / 2001 Douglas Laing Old Malt Cask 276 bttls 50% vs Lochside 32 yo 1982 / 2014 Malts of Scotland #14019 55.2% vs Lochside 29 yo 1981 / 2010 Thosop 50.5%
- St Magdalene 25 yo 1964 / 1989 Cadenhead 44.2% vs St Magdalene 23 yo 1970 Rare Malts 58.43%
- Caol Ila 15 yo Sestante for Novecento 64.7% vs Caol Ila 15 yo Sestante 65.3%
- Glen Garioch 25 yo 1990 / 2017 LMdW ‘Artist #7’ Cask #2694 52.3% vs Glen Garioch 1968 29 yo 1968 #625 57.2%
- Clynelish 90 yo 1972 / 2002 Scotch Malt Sales 58% vs Clynelish 23 yo 1974 / 1998 Rare Malts 59.1%
- Scapa 12 yo 40% ~2000 vs Scapa 8 yo Gordon & Macphail 57% ~ late 80s
- Bruichladdich 21 yo 1992 / 2014 Duncan Taylor #3987 49.7% vs Bruichladdich 22 yo 1991 / 2014 Gleann Mor #2270 55.9%
