The Dram Club - January 2022
We present an exclusive bottling of the beloved Islay distillery Laphroaig with their batch #013 10 year cask strength.
LAPHROAIG 10 - yr Cask Strength Batch #013
Distillery: Laphroaig
Region: Loch Laphroaig, Islay, Scotland
Mash Bill: 100% SCOTTISH barley
Distilling: copper still
Aging: ten years in ex-bourbon casks
Bottled: January 2021
Color: pale straw yellow
Viscosity: full and lush – rightly so for 58%
Nose: intense! briny, sweet baked apple with anise and penicillin
With Water: caramelized honey, toffee, heather
Palate: full bodied with a sizzle!
Finish: roasty, smokey malt with sweet vanilla
Recommended serving: dilute down slowly as you experience each new flavor.
Recommended cigar: Charter Oak CT Shade Toro or Jacobs Ladder Lancero
Why we are excited about this whisky:
“Hello, old friend.” There is something much more pure in this expression from Laphroaig than many of their other offerings. That is not to say that the regular bottlings are less than standard: there is nothing more iconic Islay peatiness than cracking open the familiar white and green visible on any bar top. However, the aromatics and palate attack your senses with such a strong focus that you almost feel transported to the banks of Loch Laphroaig and feel the cool breeze with a taste of salinity in the air. As for batch #013, we recommend saving some of your bottle (or buying a second!) to compare to next year’s release.
FROM OUR FRIENDS AT LEATHERWOOD CIGARS
CHARTER OAK CT SHADE TORO – This cigar is smooth with a crisp finish. The pairing adds a silky texture to the smoke and warmth of the Laphroaig. Select this cigar if you enjoy light floral notes (with just a hint of vanilla and oak).
JACOBS LADDER LANCERO – Fair warning… this is a super adventurous pairing. The smoky warmth of the scotch bring out unmistakable dark cocoa flavor, while the Pennsylvania wrapper also adds a salty (almost nautical!) essence to the whisky. You’ll find a tart black cherry on the finish.
EXTENDED TASTING NOTES:
NOSE – leaps out, but it doesn’t attack you as you would expect for its proof, but rather, it embraces you immediately like an old friend; of the primary notes, the alcohol surprisingly takes a back seat. First, you’ll pick up on the classic weighty, briny malt that characterizes Laphroaig. The nose is quite complex with many characters in play. Sweet, baked apple with dried fig and tropical fruits leads into smoked pork belly, anise, and penicillin (I know what I’m using for my next Sazerac spray); the malt comes through behind these other notes and has a roasty, mature style to it.
PALATE – it sizzles; the attack is like a needle to your senses, and the flavors really only present themselves throughout the finish, but there is a lot to discover. More malty, stony minerality tones carry through. Dried tropical fruits and apple surface but are quickly subsided by fatty, smoky tones with sweet vanilla and anise. You’ll want to dilute this down to get many more focused flavors.
WITH WATER – the nose presents caramelized honey, toffee, and chocolate mint, while the palate brings the peat. This dram holds its power and longevity but allows more of the softer tones to shine through, all while wrapped in the medicinal peat and power that is Laphroaig.
About Laphroaig Distillery
To scotch whisky beginners, Laphroaig can be a sensory overload on their first dram, but the more you begin to realize the subtle differences from this malt to other distilleries, the more you appreciate and agree with their saying printed on every bottle: “One of the most richly flavoured of all Scotch whisky.” A bold statement, to be sure, but let’s take a look at what Laphroaig Distillery does, and has done for the last 200 years, to produce such a powerful elixir.
THE WATER - Laphroaig Distillery sources their water from the Kilbride Stream which flows through their own peat bog, adding a slight peaty character to the water itself. They are so passionate about this water source that Laphroaig once prevented another distillery from redirecting the stream to steal this rare resource. While we would love to imagine an old Scottish clan feud fought in kilts, this debate occurred in the courtroom. Had it happened a hundred years prior, we might have seen the old distillers donning blue war paint screaming “Free…our water…dom!”
THE PEAT -Islay is unique in that its peat bogs have always been the sole source for malting barley in the distilling process. No trees grow on Islay, so peat became relied upon whenever fuel was needed. Laphroaig still follows the traditional method of hand harvesting peat blocks and drying them for three months before use. The Glenmachrie bog, their private property they continually maintain and replenish, consists of a higher portion of heather and lichen which gives their whiskies its distinct medicinal flavour.
THE MALT -The barley is soaked for two days in the same Kilbride water used to make the mash and proof the whisky, already imposing a softly peaty character to the grain. After a thorough soaking, the malt is allowed to germinate while being softly turned to provide perfect conditions until enough starches develop to begin the fermentation process. Here is where Laphroaig differs from some distilleries. At this point, the barley needs to be dried and smoked to prevent germination from becoming too “green.” Many distilleries combine the process and use hot smoke to dry the grain. Laphroaig opts to “cold smoke” their peat moss to imbue a tarry, smokey profile into the malt, then they recycle heat from the still room to dry the barley.
FERMENTATION -From here, the barley makes its first step towards becoming the liquid we love. The barley is milled and soaked in increasingly hot water until most of the sugars dissolve. From here, Laphroaig racks a more clear liquid, the “clear wort,” from the mash tun, allowing a more fruity character to develop as yeast turns those sugars into alcohol. At this point, the distiller’s beer, or “wash,” is around 8.5% alcohol and ready to be distilled.
DISTILLATION -Laphroaig uses a troupe of seven copper stills. The wash first passes through one of three large stills resulting in a lower alcohol spirit around 22% called a “low wine.” Next, the spirit is distilled a second time in one of four much smaller spirit stills, still made of copper. Here, Laphroaig opts to make their first cut much later than industry standards. They found the fruitier esters carry through distillation and appear at the early part of the hearts, and while they appreciate those fruity tones, they prefer to allow the medicinal and tarry profile shine, hence the later distillation cuts.
AGING -It is in the warehouses that the new spirit rests to transform from a clear spirit into the powerful whisky it was destined to be. The new make is taken from the still and diluted to 65% abv and siphoned into oak barrels. Here, Laphroaig is as meticulous with this resource as any other that goes into their product. For American oak, in which the majority of their spirit rests, they utilize ex-Maker’s Mark bourbon barrels. Occasionally, after the whisky is already matured in American oak barrels, Laphroaig will “extra mature” in French Oak sherry barrels for added spice and drier fruit notes.
Oak isn’t the only influence on the whisky’s profile at this stage. During aging, the whisky evaporates at a rate of 2-4% each year. As the Angels take their share, a new element passes into the barrel imbuing a further complexity: Atlantic Ocean air. The saline-heavy cool air passses into the warehouse, into the barrels, and into the whisky itself. This aging process combining oak and air gives the final *chef’s kiss* to the beautiful brown beverage.
THE BLEND -Here is where we differ from the standard Laphroaig 10. While many distilleries are adding “cask strength” editions of their standard spirit, Laphroaig wanted to give a true experience of tasting the whisky straight from the barrel. In this sense, they approach the blend to Laphroaig 10 year Original Cask Strength differently than their standard bottling. While blending whisky, many Master Blenders will proof the spirit down below the intended bottle strength as it offers the final statement that would express itself after an imbiber blooms their dram. Sense this bottle is intended to be presented at cask strength, they opt for a different blend - one that promotes the core character of Laphroaig straight from the cask. With their 10 year bottling, and many other bottlings, Laphroaig employs fining and filtration techniques - nothing extreme, but they want the spirit to remain clear while you enjoy it. The Original Cask Strength skips these steps: it is not chill-filtered (so the spirit may turn cloudy when chilled or cold water added), it is gently strained through a barrier membrane (think coffee strainer that catches any debris), and bottled so you can enjoy as is pulled straight from the barrel.
FROM Laphroaig Distillery
“The purists’ choice, Laphroaig Cask Strength is bottled at natural distillery strength and barrier filtered. It has the intense depth, taste and texture you'd expect from tasting whisky at the distillery, but in the comfort of your home.
Laphroaig 10 year cask strength has all the classic flavors of our quintessential Islay Scotch whisky, but more intense. Polished leather and tobacco combine with zingy lemon and clementine zest, accompanied by notes of heather honey, hazelnuts and vanilla fudge. This uncompromising Scotch whisky can sometimes overpower the palette — add water if needed.”