Islay 31 yo 1990 / 2021 Thompson Bros 49.3% vs Islay 32 yo 1990 / 2022 Thompson Bros 49.3%

Islay 31 yo 1990 / 2021 Thompson Bros 49.3%

Lovely. Soft Laphroaig, worn smooth into a sphere of gentle iodine, glowing peatfire, soft medicinal ointments and rubs, ripe earthy loam and a delicious baked fruit tart sort of fruitiness. Dried seaweed, specks of clean ash floating in wispy white smoke, All the while the coastal air and brine is ever present but never roaring. Preserved lemon rinds, a single menthol cigarette, lanolin moisturizers and rock salt. It’s exactly what you might imagine an excellent young Laphroaig might taste like after long age has reduced the volume to a low but harmonized buzz. 90 pts

Islay 32 yo 1990 / 2022 Thompson Bros 49.3%

By comparison, this one has retained a sharpness of salinity and a seascape driven warmth that evokes images of sunny boating days. A lean but dry and crumbly peat underscores the scene, as does long disused firepits still filled with damp ash, disintegrating firewood and char. Despite its age, a hot green like chest rubs of eucalyptus and wintergreen are strongly present, as if freshly applied. A spark of combustion and unlit petrochemicals in the air, plus hot sand, sun bleached plaster and the bitter part of lemon pith. Any sense of the lush iodine and ripe earth or that fat fruitiness present in the 31 yo are gone, and the whole is indeed leaner, sharper and more briny, which makes me wonder if this is not a sublimated old Caol Ila instead. 90 pts