Review #: 57
Description: Laphroaig 10 Year Single Malt
Spirit: Scotch
Background: Laphroaig is one of the famed distilleries on Islay known for their strong, peated whisky. Located just outside of Port Ellen, and on the same road as Lagavulin and Ardbeg, they have a solid core of whiskies and some great limited releases. They are one of the few distilleries on the island that malt some of the grain themselves. The 10 year is their flag ship product, so let’s see how it stands up to some of the others from the island.
Distillery – Laphroaig
Bottler – Laphroaig
Brand – Laphroaig
Selection – N/A
ABV – 43%
Age – 10 Years
Nose – Lemony brine like salt and vinegar chips, iodine smoke
Taste – A bit thin with lemon, sweet malt and cocoa
Finish – in comes the smoke, burnt plastic and bandaids, ashy smoke lingers with some black pepper
Score: 6
Would I buy a bottle? Yes, under $50
Thoughts: If you haven’t had peat before, reading some of these notes may sound bad and off putting, but I really enjoyed this. Lots of people characterize Laphroaig as being medicinal, bandaid, and iodine flavors from the peat, and I definitely got that too, but in such a positive way. I was able to get this bottle on sale for about $35 and under $50 I think it’s a great value. With current tariff pricing though, that may be difficult and the price might be so high it’s not worth it to buy rather than jumping up a little more to get the cask strength version.