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
- Clynelish 26 yo 1990 / 2016 Cadenhead 45.3% vs Highland Park 28 yo 1989 / 2018 Cadenhead 48.8%
- Linkwood 29 yo 1989 / 2019 SMWS 39.180 51% vs Linkwood 11 yo 2007 / 2019 SMWS 39.176 58%
- Strathisla 1967 / 2004 Duncan Taylor 45.9% vs Strathisla 1965 James MacArthur 51.7%
- Lagavulin 12 yo Carpano Import 43% vs Lagavulin 15 yo ceramic decanter 45%
- Eastern Highland 1975 / 1988 Samaroli Fragments of Scotland 50% (Glen Garioch) vs Glen Garioch 17 yo 1975 James MacArthur’s 54.2%
- Bowmore 10 yo Devil’s Cask Batch 1 56.9% vs Bowmore 10 yo Devils Cask Batch 2 56.3%
- Dalmore 10 yo 2006 46% vs Tomintoul 25 yo 40% ~2014 bottling vs Mackmyra Moments Ledin 48%
- Mortlach 21 yo 1957 / 1978 Cadenhead dumpy 80 proof vs Mortlach 22 yo 1969 / 1969 Cadenhead dumpy 50.5%
- Ledaig 20 yo 1972 James MacArthur 53.8% vs Ledaig 21 yo 1972 James MacArthur 54.2% vs Ledaig 18 yo James MacArthur 54.4% vs Ledaig 18 yo James MacArthur 55.2% vs Ledaig 23 yo 1972 for LMdW 51.9%
- Aberlour 30 yo 1963 James MacArthur 55.2% vs Aberfeldy 17 yo 2002 / 2019 Distillery Special #20019 54.9%
