Laphroaig Càirdeas 2016 Madeira Cask

I was stuck outside while working last night as the remnants of hurricane Matthew dumped the last of its rains here in central Virginia. The weather really set the mood for an Islay distilled scotch: dreary, salt-tinged rain and howling winds (while working nights did its usual thing of testing my overall mood). Perfect time for a new Laphroaig. I may as well open this year's Friends of Laphroaig Cairdeas release. This one was finished in Spanish Madeira wine casks and comes in at a healthy 103.2 proof. I paid $75 here in VA. First of all, I was surprised that upon pulling the cork the living room wasn't filled with that beautiful, signature Laphroaig smoke. Pouring myself a dram I also noticed what appears to be a slight rose color tainting the normal golden hues. At first I thought it was the color from the bottle's label reflecting through, but upon closer examination it isn't. There's a slight, pinkish hue to my Laphroaig. After 15 minutes of sitting and swirling I still don't get much smoke on the nose. Eerily, it's very reminiscent of the 15 year old Laphroaig- and not in a good way. I don't get anything replacing the usual smoke either. Uh oh. The first sip reveals the Laphroaig smoke I know and love along with a nice hit from the oak barrels. I'm detecting young whiskey here. As far as the wine cask finish- all I get are some subtle sweet fruits like strawberries and maybe cherries. Whatever time it spent in these wine casks it wasn't really long enough to add much towards making it a more complex scotch. It stripped away the normal oily and rich finish and replaced it with a weaker, dry one. I really loved the 2013 port wood Cairdeas- it made a wonderfully complex Lahproaig. This version unfortunately did not. The finish is pretty dry and very short. Even the burn from the high proof is absent, which some folks may love, I don't. It seems very un-Laphroaig to me. So, my initial impression is very similar to the 200th anniversary 15 year old. It seems like a light Laphroaig. That's not what I want from these guys. Before I get blasted, I realize it's hard to make an annual Cairdeas release and expect extreme depth, but they've done it before so that's not really true. This is a different take on the norm, but I can't help but feel but a bit let down. I still love Laphroaig, but I gotta chalk this one up as a disappointment. I still have the full bottle so maybe it will change my mind as I drink through it. I hope that happens. Maybe I'm brooding after a horrible night at work, my palate may be off, Donald Trump is a jerk, Hillary Clinton should be in prison, etc. I'm looking for anyone or anything to blame at this point. I guess I'll just give this one some time and hope it was just an off night for me. Cheers.

Fresh on the heels of my review of the phenomenal 2018 Cairdeas, I've got this one for the 2016 Madeira Cask. This was a pretty lucky find; the store I found this at a couple months back has an entire row of dusty bottles of this stuff. Never seen it elsewhere. Let's see if this one can hold to the precedent of excellence set by the 2017 and 2018 releases. Nose: Lots of typical Laphroaig notes: seaweed, brine, sea salt, ash, lemon, grapefruit, iodine, band-aid, tennis ball, ash, campfire smoke. Custard and chestnut. A nice bouquet of scents that wouldn't work well together in any other context. Black pepper, cinnamon, and oak. The Madeira cask imparts some red fruit notes; notably, it has more impact than the Fino casks in the 2018. Strawberry, red grape, cranberry, raspberry, and other dry red fruits. Also some apricot and a hint of melon. More briny and sweet than smoky. Good start. Palate: Initially, it's a blast of charred meats and peated notes: brisquet, bacon, campfire smoke, ash, and peat. A real peat bomb. Then I'm abruptly hit with a rush a fruity and desert sweetness. It may sound weird, but the burst of flavor is akin to biting into a Gusher; it's an explosion all at once. Citrus notes of lemon and grapefruit combine with strawberry, grape, raspberry, apricot, peach, fruit punch, cola, jam, and dark and mint chocolate, making quite an interesting flavor bomb. Red pepper and black pepper chili and chestnut. Of course, there's more sea salt, cinnamon, black pepper, and oak. Finish: All of the smoked meat, bacon, ribs, brisket carry over. Same with the brine and smoke. Red pepper and black bean chili and chestnut. Some licorice now. Cinnamon, black pepper, oak, and all of the citrus. Long finish. Fantastic. Absolute winner. I will point out that this took the longest to open up out of the 3. I wasn't really blown away by this one until tonight's tasting. But it hits every note. Especially the absolute home run of a palate with that explosion of flavor midway through. So, here I am in 2020, giving Laphroaig the esteemed title of a three-peat champion. 2016-2018, all knockout bottlings. Long live the Cairdeas line. Now I need to go out and buy the 2019 Triple Wood CS. If you're lucky enough to see this, snatch it up. 5/5.

The Bottle: Fairly standard Laphroaig fare. For this Cairdeas expression(and likely others) they have forgone the traditional green glass in favor of clear, letting you get a good look at the spirit inside. The spirit itself has some bronze overtones to it, which play nicely against the red portions of the label specific to this Madeira release. All-in-all, no real surprises here. In the Glass: Burnished bronze. With a few drops of water, which you will need seeing as how this is cask strength at 51.6% ABV, a nice Scottish Mist begins to develop. On the Nose: There's the traditional medicinal, peaty hit that is associated with the standard 10 year old; but it's wrapped up in what reads as a fruit compote. There is a very strong marine backdrop to this... harbors, sea salt, crusty sailors and smoked kippers. It reads very much like a seaside fruit-stand that specializes in smoked marmalade. For those of you Laphroaig fans who appreciate that TCP hit, there's nothing here to be mad at :) Taste: Assertive. Medicinal. Fruity. Peat. This one attacks your palate as if you had somehow insulted it's mother. Water is definitely required to tame this down to a level where the nuance comes out. There's the whole Laphroaig peaty thing that we all know and love; but the madeira maturation really does start to shine after the glass has about 10 minutes to open up. It almost starts to get into Longrow Red territory, but this is more "minerals and medicine" if you catch my drift. The finish is dominated by sweet marine notes and sea stones. Less Talisker, more Spanish merchant ship. My guess is that it's a little less than 10 years old, given that it's a NAS; but it doesn't seem to suffer from it. That second maturation in madeira really does fill in any of the gaps in flavor that would be left behind from shortened maturation time frame. For fans of Laphroaig, this does not disappoint. Another in a great range of specialized maturation releases from the Cairdeas line. (Laphroaig, if you're taking suggestions, I'd love to see a Calvados finished one!)

Review transfer from Barreled from October 2016. This is the first Cairdeas (Gaelic for friendship) that I've had. Tasting comes from a sample not a full bottle. This Laphroaig comes in at a hefty 51.6% ABV, the highest strength Laphroaig I've had to date. The color is a sort of strawberry gold, no word on if it is natural color or not. Non chill filtered. On the nose, this is very un-Laphroaig. Sweet oranges are dominant, showing off the influence of the Madeira casks. The peat that is typical Laphroaig is quite muted at first. Slightly nutty. Bourbon-y oak, but on the sweeter side, no vanilla or cinnamon that I could detect. More oranges. The peat seems to become more apparent after time in the glass. A very curious nosing experience. The arrival on the palate is very sweet. Oranges and cream with apricot and peach. It quickly turns spicy, very spicy. Slightly salty. After swallowing you get a blast of burnt peat. More of a burnt sensation than the typical ashy one associated with Laphroaig. The finish is dry, spicy and a bit nutty with more of the burnt/ashy quality. Medium-short in length. I added water (which I don't normally do) due to the higher strength just to see what would happen. The peat is pushed further back on the nose and allows more fruit to come through. It tones down the burnt feel and becomes more ashy on the palate, but it loses something overall. Overall I like this one. It's so atypical for Laphroaig that it's worth at least a try. At $80 I would buy a full bottle and enjoy it very much. 4.25

Rosé hue. Appearance unlike any I’ve seen. It is a liquid jewel. The nose is also really special. Salted raisin, orange blossom honey, cardamom immediately, with rich and earthy peat surfacing as it opens up. Overall the nose weds smoky and sweet, presuming smoked game bird altogether. First on the palate is the classic Laphroaig peat punch. The second wave is rather hot, with smoldering cigar and madeira coming through. Hints of candied hibiscus. It took time to realize it, but for me the punchline of this dram is buttery, melt-in-your-mouth empire biscuit (Scottish shortbread with berry jam). This whisky gets sweeter as it goes down, but that sweetness is not a sugary sweet. Like the nose would suggest, it is rather a peppery, meaty sweetness. I will say, though, that the meatiness isn’t necessarily a dominant aspect of this malt in the way that I might characterize the Lagavulin. The richness is more central. To take a more apophatic route, it’s definitely not cloying. The mouthfeel is oily, but not uniformly so. It’s also waxy, but very smooth. It’s really a unique mouthfeel that evokes salivation. Cairdeas 2016 leaves with a maritime finish and a medicinal burn that diminishes to an impressive aftertaste of patacón, Che berry, and musted grape skins.

I'm torn on rating this scotch, because I certainly enjoyed it, and because of the abiding loyalty I have for most Laphroaig expressions. It may be disappointing only relative to other Laphroaigs, and I wonder whether it's fair to penalize it for such high expectations. The standout feature of this scotch to me is a letdown at the palate. The nose is pretty interesting, with a strong dose of Laphroaig smoke, rounded out and softened by some truly unusual scents like vegetable peppers, tomatoes (I swear, I got a hint of them!), and rose wine. There's a bit of ethanol or acetone at times, which may just be the higher proof, but also makes me suspect this is younger by a few years than Cairdeas 2015 (which was a delight, and roughly 12 years old). The palate is shockingly nondescript. Perhaps I just can't pick out the subtle flavors in it, but it strikes me as a nondescript sweetness, perhaps watermelon, and then an ashier rendition of the smoke on the nose. The finish is intriguing, a bit hot, but good: smoke, some of the same notes as the nose, tobacco, and coffee. I did not particularly like the first dram I had, but I enjoyed this more when revisiting it. Nonetheless, the flat and simple palate caps its rating at a 3.5 or so for me.