Little Pairs of Laphroaig Pair Three


March 25, 2020

The Confined Sessions
Little Pairs of Laphroaig
Pair Three

Let’s see what we find… Oh, perhaps two 1998s? Sherry? And of crazy quality? Not that great 1998s from Laphroaig’s are an unseen breed, I agree…

Laphroaig 20 yo 1998/2018 (58.3%, Signatory Vintage 30th Anniversary, cask #700392, refill sherry butt, 573 bottles)

In theory, this should be stellar, but vorsicht, it may be heavily sherried (coffee and mustard, as we sometimes say). Colour: deep gold. Nose: phew! There is some oloroso, with old walnuts indeed, and even a little ham and mustard (sauce à la diable, we say), but that would just interpenetrate (what?) with the very smoky distillate. Absolutely wonderful notes of camphor, embrocations, cut agave, then game, seawater, shellfish, chartreuse, fennel, and a little engine oil again. Wow, as they say at Islay’s Got Talent. With water: damp fabric and chalk. Always works. Looks like the water I’m using kind of offsets the sherry – good to know! (I’m ready to ship this particular water to you, price is 5,000€ a litre – while stocks last!) Mouth (neat): sumptuous, rich, pretty creamy, and just flawless. Mushrooms, walnuts, dried beef and cured ham, lemon marmalade, oysters, grapefruit juice, iodine, cough syrup, green pepper, turmeric, seawater and.. hey oh, have I mentioned walnuts? With water: indeed it takes water very well. Tobacco, soft leather, walnuts, black olives, seawater… Finish: long and very salty. Comments: have the excellent people at the Distillery ever issued a vintage 1998, beyond some hand-filled ones?
SGP:467 - 92 points.

Laphroaig 21 yo 1998/2019 (54.4%, The Whisky Exchange, The Perfect Measure, oloroso, cask #117, 322 bottles)

Something I don’t quite get, when London (I call them London) say ‘The Perfect Measure’, do they suggest that 70cl is that measure? Was that checked with some kind of post-Brexit health authorities? Also, they say it was finished in oloroso since 2010, but I’d rather call that double-maturation then. Indeed, the spirit of contradiction (nice name for a new range, no? Nah forget…) Colour: dark amber. Nose: I’ll say it (now that it sold out, unless I’m mistaken), it reminds of the official 1974 for La Maison. Smoked prunes, menthol cigarettes, 100 yo armagnac, brake fluid, resins, linseed oil, pine needles, green walnuts, walnut wine (or nocino), linoleum, Bénédictine, a drop of Bovril/Viandox… Isn’t this some kind of meta (or supra) food? With water: up up up. I’ll have to stop quoting Mark Spitz or Shirley Babashoff, but yeah, it swims pretty well. Mouth (neat): fabtastic, you just have to enjoy pinesap, fir bud liqueur, or indeed Chartreuse. Smoked Chartreuse, some very crazy monk must have thought about trying to concoct that! Also a little maraschino, guignolet… What’s sure is that it is splendid. With water: the distillate fighting back, with oysters, toothpaste, olives, lemons, cough syrup and just, well, ‘peat’. Finish: long, pretty creamy, a little more classic, with some leather, tobacco, marmalade, black tapenade… Comments: pretty mind-boggling. He who decided, back in 2010, to re-rack this one into this oloroso cask deserves our eternal consideration. And a few medals (just like Mark Spitz and Shirley Babashoff – oh come on, Serge!)
SGP:467 - 93 points.

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