Little Pairs of Laphroaig Pair Four


March 26, 2020

The Confined Sessions
Little Pairs of Laphroaig
Pair Four

Let’s try to have a little fun today. And have an intriguing official (but aren’t they all?)

Laphroaig 2005/2019 ‘PX, I love you’ (54.4%, OB, for Loch & Key, USA, cask #3, Vintage Cask)

A funny thing for sure. I love PX too, but not in my Laphroaig! Sounds like cappuccino and bacon to me (apologies), or kippers and bananas. Or lamb and mint (ha). Colour: office coffee. Nose: well, it is okay. Exhaust fumes, leather polish, new sneakers, Linzertorte, Mon-Chéri, regular milk chocolate (I won’t mention chocolate with palm oil inside, out of charity), a little geraniol (geranium), rubber and tar, used matches, raisins… It’s not totally dissonant, I have to say. With water: really, lol. Between tequila and kirsch indeed, plus drops of Jäger and Uzbek tar liqueur. No, really, Uzbekistan. Mouth (neat): very loco, a kind of heavy lapsang souchong of whisky. Or smoked kirsch, really. I have to admit that it’s got some good sides having said that, the best being that it is not as rubbery as most other PXed peat monsters. There. With water: lapsang souchong. Finish: lapsang souchong for a good 30 secs. Comments: in French we’d call it ‘sympatoche’ but I just couldn’t find any equivalent word in English. Perhaps ‘friendly-funny’?
SGP:557 - 83 points.

More sherry, perhaps?

Laphroaig 18 yo 2001/2019 (59.3%, Signatory Vintage, for La Maison du Whisky, refill sherry butt, cask #319, 606 bottles)

This one came out at Whisky Live Paris, right between the Gilets Jaunes and the strikes (in Paris we always organise strikes and demonstrations for tourists, just like our Chinese friends have their pandas – but pandas are smarter). Colour: light gold. Nose: it reminds me of the 30th anniversary as far as sherryness goes. I mean, the sherry’s very discreet and would just let the distillate speak out as much as it wants. Brine, shells, lime, chalk, and only a very moderate medicinal side. Quite some leather. With water: a wee bit more on the leathery side. Mouth (neat): oh very good! Perhaps simple, but it’s beautifully straightforward, almost abstract. Gentian, chalk, lemon, brine, touch of cardboard, or perhaps matchwood. With water: long, smoked almonds and putty. Saltier aftertaste, with some cucumber juice. No, let’s not exaggerate, no cucumber juice. Finish: long, classic salty and smoky style. Comments: excellent, but it’s not a classic medicinal Laphroaig.
SGP:467 - 87 points.

(Thank you Joe at Skinner’s)

Check the index of all Laphroaig we've tasted so far