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
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- Glenugie 1967 / 1989 Sestante 43% vs Glenugie 1967 / 1989 Sestante 59.5%
- Clynelish 25 yo 1993 / 2019 Gordon & MacPhail 19/079 54.3% vs Chollet Lot 1960 bottled 2020 ‘#4 Le bon vivant’ Fin Bois Malternative 46.3%
- Macallan 8 yo FLLI Rinaldi 43% 75cl vs Macallan 18 yo 1973 / 1991 43%
- Caperdonich 1972 / 2011 Malts of Scotland #1144 57.4% vs Caperdonich 1972 / 2008 Gordon & MacPhail #1975 57%
- Glen Garioch 27 yo 1991 / 2018 Carn Mor #20392 51% vs Glen Garioch 21 yo 1965 Full Proof 50%
- Talisker 10 yo ‘map label’ 45.8% ~circa early 90s vs Talisker Gordon & MacPhail 100 proof ~ circa 80s bottling
- Laphroaig 1977 / 1995 43% vs Laphroaig 12 yo 1984 / 1996 Cadenhead 60.3%
- Highland Park 25 yo 1992 / 2017 Cadenhead Warehouse Tasting 59.8% vs Mortlach 30 yo 1989 / 2019 Douglas Laing #DL13722 52.4%
- Clynelish 21 yo 1989 / 2010 Whisky Agency 54% vs Clynelish 20 yo 1997 / 2017 Spirit Shop Selection #6932 56.5%
