During our 25th Laphroaig’s review, we realize that 1) we drank very few Laphroaigs; 2) there is no need to explain why Laphroaig is important, nor why it is loved, so we will spare you that. Let’s taste today the Cairdeas 2015 bottling, for the Feis Ile of the past year: a special year, the 200th anniversary of the distillery… John Campbell, the distillery manager, has prepared a special recipe: only barley malted in local malting floors, only two stills used (the smallest ones, the oldest ones), maturation in warehouse N.1, age not declared. Shall we go? Let’s go.
N: a little alcohol, but otherwise there’s a lot of everything else… For example, the ‘sweetness’ is not only intense: it is overflowing, deep, played on notes of almond paste, powdered sugar, even talcum powder. The classic Christmas ginger and cinnamon cookies. There is an enchanting citrusy note, we would say of lime, complicated by a mentholated tip. The peat, then, is dirty, smells of smog, diesel, and at the same time there is also a lot of medicinal gauze, a sensation of hospital ward and almost zero marinity.
P: clamorously little alcohol despite the abv. The entrance is incredibly peaty and smoky, and it still seems to descend into a dystopian subsoil full of smog, smoke, burning engines, burnt plastic and desolation. But then come together sweetness and (a phenomenal) acidity, indissolubly united and balanced, with notes of almond and lime candy. It all seems to happen in the laboratory of a dentist, so many are the medicinal notes. Let’s say that acidity is the glue between a shy sweetness and an impressively intense smog. Still, no salt and little sea.
F: very long and intense, still lime, still smog, smoke, peat, sugared almonds, cereal cookies. Excellent.
One of the best Laphroaig we have ever tasted; and the words are already too many. 91/100.
Recommended soundtrack: Alberto Fortis – Milano e Vincenzo.
