Laphroaig Cairdeas 2015

Laphroaig will always have a special place in my heart for me. It is constantly fighting for a top spot with Ardbeg for my affections. And I think I'm finally ready to accept that Laphroaig consistently produces better whiskies than Ardbeg.

I am, therefore, officially announcing that Laphroaig is now my No. 1 whisky of choice. Sorry Ardbeg but you've let me down far too many times of late.

So it was quite symbolic that the first distillery I ever visited was this one when I traveled to Scotland last week to attend the Islay Festival. We went straight from the tiny airport to the distillery to take part in the festivities.

After standing in line for over an hour we managed to enter the shop and picked up our bottles of the 2015 Cairdeas. With those in the bag we managed to attend a couple of tastings while there.

One of them was called 2015 which included three expressions all released this year. There was the new 10 year old Cask Strength Batch 007, an unreleased 21 year old (delicious!) and of course this years' Feis Ile release.

This years' release is different from the others since it uses floor malted barley as opposed to regular malted barley. It's been distilled using the small stills at the distillery which means it has a lot of fruity characteristics. And matured in first-fill bourbon barrels in the famous Warehouse No1 by the sea.

Distilled in August 2003 my sample is nearly 12 years old and bottled at 51.5% (the last two digits are a nod to the year by the way).

Nose: Typical Laphroaig. TCP. Iodine. Sea weed. There's a hint of char. Some toasted barley. But then comes the sweetness. So much of it. Lots of fruity citrus. Pineapples. Lemon. Lime. Blood oranges. Tinge of honey. Vanilla. Quite nicely layered.

Palate: Hint of smoke. Touch of peat. Again very sweet. The pineapple is back. So is the vanilla. Warehouse No1 comes into play with all the saltiness. An interesting sweet and salty combination. I really like it.

Finish: Nice and long with a hint of oak.

This is an interesting Laphroaig which goes back to the old ways of whisky making. The peat is different because of the floor malting. The maturation quite interesting thanks to living in the damp dunnage warehouse by the sea for almost 12 years. Good stuff!

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