Laphroaig 1998 SMWS 29.262 So long and thanks for all the medicine
| Category | SINGLE MALT |
| Distillery | Laphroaig |
| Bottler | The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) |
| Bottling Series | - |
| Vintage | 1998 |
| Bottled Year | 2019 |
| Age | 20년 |
| Cask Type | 2nd Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel |
| Cask Number | - |
| Bottles Released | - |
| ABV | 55.6% |
| Volume | 700 ml |
| Label | - |
| Country | Scotland |
| Region | Islay |
Flavor Profile
Tasting Notes
Colour
white wine
air Nose
In the words of a certain Alsatian marketing guru: millimetric! That is to say, purity and blade-like precision. A wonderfully thick smokiness that recalls buckets of hot tar, black pepper on smoked mackerel, still warm bonfire embers, seawater, dried kelp and crushed aspirin mixed with seashells and chalk. I just adore this kind of profile which manages to be simultaneously pure, precise, coastal, invigorating and yet also very aromatically complex and rather elegant. There’s also this rich seam of medicine running through it. Bandages, embrocations, antiseptic, floor cleaners and various no-nonsense ointments that are usually confined to hospitals. Some farmyard as well with these hints of raw peat and sheep wool. With water: dilution really brings out the farminess now. There’s dung, silage, mud, clay and big wafting peat smoke. Still in the background though is brine, burning rosemary wood, black olive tapenade and anchovy paste. Totally thrilling Laphroaig!
restaurant Palate
wow! Superb oiliness. It really has everything: medicine, peat smoke, grease, engine oils, farmyard, seashore brilliance and sharp notes of lemon juice, ash, tar, iodine, seawater and smoked grist soaked in brine. There’s a kind of seesaw between a heavier, greasier profile, the weight of which pulls at the more elevated, sharper, precise qualities of salinity, citrus, sea air, earth, raw barley and smoke. With water: really perfect now with water. Olive oil mixed with brine, green olives, preserves lemons, antiseptic, more iodine, TCP, mercurochrome, bandages. Classical Laphroaig only bigger, broader and more complex. You never get away from this feeling of being caught between the hearth of a peat fire and the seashore
timer Finish
long, lemony, very oily, tarry, briny and full of kiln smoke, engine grease, mineral salts and lots of thick, smoked fish notes
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this whisky!
Sign in to leave a review
Sign In