Laphroaig 30 yo 43% ~ early 2000s vs Lagavulin 30 yo 1976 / 2006 52.6%
Laphroaig 30 yo 43% ~ early 2000s
Yes, as deeply tarry and anaerobic as peat comes, with a real old earthy funk. Old workbenches with a veneer of saturated grease and dirt. Gamey too, in a smoked ham way, and leathery old resins like labdanum. It opens into a little cosmos of phenols. Old cigars, a bit of rancio, hard licorice sticks, cold ash inch thick in ashtrays, charred steel and old wet coal from a barbeque after the rain. Ripe seaweed piled up with the other detritus on seaworn docks. Unsweetened cola extract and tropical fruit left to ripen too long its been thrown into the compost pit. On the tongue a gentle sunny saltiness arrives wearing muddy rubber boots. An utter dream, sophisticated yet dark and brooding with a quiet menace. 93 pts
Lagavulin 30 yo 1976 / 2006 52.6%
The beast is much subdued here. Old ash, wet firepits, damp dunnage and earth floors. Distant petrol fumes along the shore. Not the most demonstrative right now. Boggy oak, wet tobacco leaves, sooty hobs. Plenty going on, has it decided where? Gritty herbals and oil stained minerals meander through the churned earth and ash. And soon the oak is felt, next to licorice and preserved peel. The sooty smoke does emerge ahead eventually. The nose is undoubtedly complex but the whole is rather indiscriminate, that is, until the tongue where these elements are finally pulled together in a murky saline broth of medicated petrochemicals. Really demands attention. 91 pts, a penalty for its fussiness.
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