Laphroaig 25 Year Cask Strength (2020 Edition)

Light gold. Intense aroma immediately - starts open, full of pleasant smoke. No doubt this is an Islay, from one of the big 3. It opens into an even ashier smoke. Strong, intense +! That smoke does dissipate after about 5 minutes. Then magic begins. New aromas appear. Some orange, and chocolate in the back. Some leather. Complex. Definitely a smell of toasty cereal. There is barley in this! A bit longer, and straw mixes with the cereal. Smoke now integrated. After about 15 minutes it is balanced and sweet, with smoke, cereal, and vanilla mingling. Some fruit is present too, can’t quite identify it. Give it longer and more chocolate. Definitely orange in the midst of it all. On palette, first you get the Islay smoke, but it is so much more balanced then younger vintages. As with the nose, it mingles with cereal at the front, and evaporates leaving distinct orange. Salty - you can taste the ocean air. Not super long, which was a surprise. Like champagne bubbles, it evaporates and salty cereal remains. Really opens over time and then the flavors continue to evolve. Pour one big dram, and sit with it for 2 hours at least! The contrast on the palette is fascinating, between a smoke and ash and chocolate, contrasted with the light fruit and savory notes of sea salt, iodine, and campfire. Tremendous balance, with ash, grain, and vanilla on the nose, and on palette you get chocolate and salt mixing in with fruit, finishing surprisingly clean. Smoke, barley, wood and ocean and perfect harmony.

I opened this bottle at midnight as my toast of choice on 9/11, 20 years hence. When I was a kid in the 80s I used to watch Leave it to Beaver every day after school. It was hilarious especially because a lot of the things Beaver and co. got themselves into was the same type of stuff my friends and I were doing. It resonated. I had marveled that although we were separated by some 30 years, Beaver still seemed real and not too different from me. Then a few years ago I tried to show my kids Leave it to Beaver when it appeared on Netflix briefly. It was unwatchable. The world has changed so much that nothing resonated any more. What does still resonate today? Mr. Rogers. When things are scary, kids, look for the helpers. And then, when you’ve found your courage, be one of the helpers. God bless the Helpers. I wanted something that came from a time before the world changed forever. Before the ubiquity of the internet, before terrorists forced on us endless war without rules. I chose Laphroaig 25. The nose is both a salty sea breeze and a fresh rain on a rocky shore, with some butterscotch for good measure. It lowers the heart rate just to sniff it and meditate for a moment. The palate is full and sweet, salty and smoky. Caramel and Vanilla, stone fruit and kumquat. Smooth but bold, very little bite. The finish is so warm and tingly, it feels like if the helpers keep helping, we’re all going to be alright.

Not sitting down with this in isolation and having it from a rocks glass, but the next best thing is getting to share it with other Friends of Laphroaig. What a beautiful dram, thank you Jordan!!! Looking forward to more events for FOL in Portland! Nose: brown sugar, mellowed peat, a nice citrus marmalade note, almost a root beer/sasparilla we Palate: sweeter than expected, nice strong oak character. French vanilla bean. A mellowed, less aggressive seawater. Brown sugar. A bit of heat. Very deep and complex. Marzipan. Ash. Finish: nice phenolic peat, drying oak, remnant Salinity.

Nose: Bandaids with hospital waiting room aromas. Palate: A lovely punch in the face honey smoky bacon with Finish: A light blue cheese afterburn.

Well, simply the best!

Peat, complex