Review by: The Muskox

Here’s another review that I wrote up nearly a year ago, then, uh, got a little distracted. I only have a small sample bottle of this whisky, so it took me until looking up a picture of the bottle to post the review to realize that this was in a fancy decanter. Nowadays, you’d never find a single-cask whisky in such a fancy bottle, at least not until you hit those crazy-old Gordon & MacPhail things.

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Distillery: Laphroaig.

Bottler: Caledonian Selection.

Region: Islay.

ABV: 55.3%. Cask strength.

Age: 20 years. Distilled in 1981. Bottled in 2001.

Cask type: Cask #4606, a hogshead.

Price: N/A, sample.

Color: 0.3, Pale gold. No colour added. Non-chill-filtered.

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Nose: Deeply savoury. All sorts of cheesy notes, from washed rind to blue cheese to smoked gouda. honey, black olives, sundried tomatoes, roasted garlic, olive oil – is this a pizza? Sweetness sits underneath – peach, pear, brown sugar, cola, bacon-wrapped figs. Charcoal, moss, and a hint of farmyard earthiness.

Palate: Medium-light texture, slightly syrupy. Arrives vegetal and sweet, ricola, brown sugar, orange, salted egg yolks. Dark and earthy on the development, staying surprisingly sweet, with soaked mossy wood, grilled ham, and more of a blood orange now as the fruit turns darker.

Finish: Dark and green – very mossy. Iodine and charcoal grill. Wet quartzite. Salty cheddar. White cherry and coconut. Eucalyptus.

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Conclusion: Rich and understated. I feel like I could do with a bit more acidity – is this what wine nerds call “flabby”?

The above two sentences are all of what I wrote when I actually tried this, and unfortunately the sample is long gone so that’s about all the detail I got. In the present, having had a bit of a run of mediocre whiskies, I remember this one very fondly.

Final Score: 88.

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Scoring Legend:

• 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
• 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
• 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
• 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
• 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
• 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
• 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
• 50-59: Save it for mixing.
• 0-49: Blech.