A shockingly timely whisky review for once.
The 2017 edition of Laphroaig’s Feis Ile release, the Cairdeas, landed in the US this month. You will recall that Laphroaig are the only Islay distillery that release their Feis Ile bottle in the US. They’re also the only one who seem to envision their festival bottling as intended for everyone and not just for those willing to spend a lot of money, either by going to Islay or on an auction site. This cost £77 on Islay (where a lot of it was still available in the distillery shop a few weeks after Feis Ile) and in Minnesota it seems to be going between $70 and $85, and is available at a number of stores including a big chain. Compare this with the cost and contortions necessary to get your hands on the Feis Ile releases from any of the other Islay distilleries.
This year’s edition departs from most of the recent Feis Ile releases in three ways: it doesn’t feature wine/sherry cask maturation of any kind; it dispenses with the Cairdeas year/abv number shtick; and it is basically a version of one of their core releases. While last year’s Cairdeas featured Madeira casks, 2014’s featured amontillado sherry casks and 2013’s featured port casks, this year’s is a cask strength version of the Quarter Cask. Which is not to say it’s the regular Quarter Cask at cask strength (though it may be, for all I know); but it’s also made by briefly double maturing young ex-bourbon whisky in smaller quarter casks. The whisky in here is young: five years old + 6 months in the quarter casks; I’m not sure if the whisky that goes into the regular Quarter Cask release is much older. I do know they have older quarter cask whisky in their warehouse; one of those—a 12 yo, if I remember correctly—was among the three casks at the Warehouse Tasting I did in June: it was my least favourite of the three casks (too spicy for my taste). Anyway, let’s see what this is like.
Laphroaig Cairdeas 2017, Quarter Cask (57.2%; from my own bottle)
Nose: Peat mixed with lemon and brine; some cereals in there too; not particularly phenolic. Gets sweeter as it sits, with some vanilla popping out; but the lemon expands too and there’s a bit of bitterness behind it that’s bracing. The peat dims with time and the nose as a whole goes a bit flat. Let’s see if water brings it back to life. Yes, water revs it back up, bringing out more peat but also more of the vanilla and some cream.
Palate: Ashier smoke here to start and some coarsely ground pepper; not as much of the lemon. Very drinkable at full strength: in fact, blind I would not have thought this was at 57.2%. Spicier on the second sip and a bit sweeter. It’s a little simple though, with not much going on behind the smoke and spice. More phenolic with water and the sweetness and the smoke are better integrated (pipe tobacco) but there’s no increased complexity as such.
Finish: Long. Increasingly bitter smoke and pepper. The lemon pops out again at the end. Sweeter with water and there’s some clove in here too now.
Comments: This is smokier than some of the Whiskybase reviews (which are generally not very positive) had led me to expect. I’m not sure if it’s better than its Whiskybase score led me to expect though. It’s rather obviously young—especially, neat (I liked it better with water). Frankly, I prefer the regular Quarter Cask to this (though if you find that too woody and sweet you might prefer this). And, on the whole, I’d say that unless you’re a Laphroaig-phile like me, there’s really no reason to get this over the regular 10 yo CS. Or if you can still find the 2015 release of the Cairdeas you should pick up a bottle of that.
I wonder what they’ll do next year. I wouldn’t mind an all-sherry youngster; I liked a refill sherry 7 yo from Signatory’s UCF line.
Rating: 84 points. (Pulled up by water.)
My Annoying Opinions 
Thanks for the review. I’ve been looking for this and it looks like a shop in Minnesota carries it, Ace Spirits, to ship to CA. Any experience with them?
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They’re good people.
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Awesome, thanks!
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I, too, have ordered from Ace before. Good stuff. Easy shipping to another state (WI in my case).
MAO, great review. And it’s like you were reading my mind with all the questions you pre-emptively answered! And I agree: An all-sherry Laphroaig next year would be just the ticket, and rather overdue.
Excuse me now, while I go spend all my whisky buckets on Laphroaig 10 CS and leave this Cairdeas on the shelf.
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appreciated all the responses. I ended up ordering from Ace and they shipped it to my state (CA) without issues, packaging was great and bottles were delivered in sound condition. Good experience overall
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Thanks for the timely review! I passed on the Madeira and I think I’ll pass on this, too.
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A Feis Ile bottling that’s generally available isn’t really a Feis Ile bottling, is it? The scrum to get what was supposed to be a perk for those who actually went is unfortunate, and I suppose Laphroaig’s decision to avoid the whole mess is admirable in a way. It’s just a shame that the gotta-have-it frenzy has spoiled what used to be a charming aspect of attending the festival.
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Well, they release it at the festival and it doesn’t go on sale anywhere else for a while—so that seems Feis Ile’is enough to me. They just make it in large enough quantities so that others can get to taste it later without having to deal with auction gougers.
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This is the first Cairdeas I’ll be sitting out ever since I got on board with them in 2012. And yes, I do find the regular QC too woody and sweet.
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Just want to note that I said that if you find the regular Quarter Cask too sweet and woody you might prefer this.
This review was from the third pour from this bottle. I’ll report if it gets any better/worse.
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Yeah, I read you right, don’t go all Aristotelian logic on me. If you need QC as a reference, then I’m not interested in drinking it. Of course, I knew that before reading your review, but if you wrote instead “If you find the regular Quarter Cask too sweet and woody, then have no fear: this is nothing like that – in fact, it achieves completely the opposite effect”…
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This is not too sweet or too woody.,,,
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OK but my rule is, if a drink touches my lips, it has to have scored at least 85 points.
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I think WhiskeyJug gave it 89 points.
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Drinking this again tonight—approaching the 3/4 full mark of the bottle—and I’m liking it a bit more. There’s some lemon on the palate and it’s more phenolic from the get-go too. Florin, if I were scoring it tonight I’d give it 85 points and bump it up the next tier.
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Damn, now I’m honor-bound to buy one!
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I’d have to agree that the 2015 is going to be hard to top. Have 5 bottles left to show for it lol
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Five bottles left!
I have to say this one has improved a bit as it’s gone on (the bottle is almost empty now) but not enough to make it into the next tier, score-wise.
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With only a pour or three to go, tonight I turned this into a near-90 point malt. How? I poured it into an unwashed glass in which I’d just finished a fruity bourbon cask Ben Nevis, making sure to leave a decent residue (probably 2-3 ml at the bottom plus whatever was clinging to the sides of the glass).
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I opened mine tonight. I’m liking more than you did. First whisky I’ve ever pulled a marijuana note from the nose! Like you note, finding the correct water amount is the key. 88/100 in my notes.
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For the weed factor, you should try the Benriach 21 Authenticus if you can still find it…
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