Laphroaig
Laphroaig
51.2%
NAS
The Cairdeas (gaelic translation: friendship) is an annual, limited release from Laphroaig. To the best of my knowledge, this vintage of the bottling kicked off the series being released in the USA. later in the series (2013,2014,2016) wine maturation finishes became a big deal while 2015 was all 100% floor malted barley at Laphroaig. Lets see what this dram has to offer:
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Brine and the sea, dead fish with a massive whallop of sweetness. Theres vanilla, cream, toffee, pastries, icing. Its really sweet but balances nicely with the peat and the initial peat notes that enter your nose.
Oily and rich, sweet cream is a dominant entry note. Lots of pepper, lemon cake, tea leaves, vanilla and caramel enter the mix. It sounds like they may be overbearing but they blend very nicely against the bold Laphroaig peat.
Medium in length and growing more vegetal. Theres more "cakey" notes here with the peat and some pepper makes a resurgence. Very complex finish, this is really impressive to me.
I wish I had this on the shelf to try when I did a big SBS of the other cairdeas (notably to compare to the 2015) but I think this is pretty great. The peat and the sweet balance very nicely here and make for a great tasting experience.
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