Released as part of the 2020 Cairdeas family, this bottling comes to use after maturation in a variety of wine casks - port and red wine here. I wish they told us what kind of red wine, but they don't, so we'll just have to let our taste buds guide us here.
Creamy on the palate, with caramel, hot tar, sweet red wine, burning peat, antiseptic, chili, and brine. Licorice, pepper, and drying peat in the long, satisfying finish.
Fans of Laphroaig will appreciate that the typical phroaig-iness is very much present, just with some fun new flavor profiles to savor, and a pleasingly long finish with only a slight burn despite the proof.
Perhaps it’s the red wine cask that’s pushed things just a bit too far into sugar town? It’s not my favorite Cairdeas, but it is something different… and worth a peek at least.
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House Review
Nose:
Powerful! Big on char, honey, peaches, apricots, plums and toffee. Sweet wine means aggressive peat and some minerality. Tire smoke.
Taste:
Rich on the palate. Lovely and complex. Toffee, apricot marmalade, blackberry, stewed fruits. Ash, peat smoke, rubber. It all plays so wonderfully with one and other.
Finish:
Long finish. Smoky and ashy, made better by rich juicy fruits, strawberry, cherry and fig.
Overall:
This throws my mind back to the greatness of the 2013 Cairdeas - a perfect synthesis of acrid peat and juicy fruits. Delightful.
Score:
92
By t8ke
Our in house critic rates spirits on a scale of 0-10 (10 best) and is aggregated the same as external sources
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