Back to whisky for the first booze review of the month. I have for you today a bit of a throwback. This Laphroaig 14, 1998, bottled from a single bourbon hogshead, was one of Binny’s barrel picks back in 2012. This was right around the time that I had begun to purchase whisky in a big way. Back then shipping from liquor stores around the US to Minnesota was not a complicated affair and I purchased many a bottle from Binny’s (in Chicago) in that era. Indeed, one of my favourite Laphroaigs in that phase of my whisky exploration had been another Laphroaig bottled by Signatory and selected by Binny’s. That one was 19 years old and was also from a single bourbon cask. My guess is that is what led me to purchase this 14 yo; that and the fact that in those days prices were extremely reasonable and Brett Pontoni and his crew’s single barrel picks were extremely reliable. I can’t actually tell you how much I paid for this as, unusually, I didn’t record any of the purchase information in my otherwise detailed whisky spreadsheet. I’ve not kept up with Binny’s in recent years—shipping became complicated a while ago. The 19 yo had been $110 in 2010, and so I imagine this was a fair bit cheaper. Anyway, let’s get to it.
Laphroaig 14, 1998 (56.2%; Signatory for Binny’s; hogshead #5564; from my own bottle)
Nose: Massive phenolic peat off the top with a mix of charred wood, iodine and soot. On the second sniff there’s a fair bit of vanilla, quite a bit of salt and some citrus (lime). The salt expands with each sniff and some pencil lead emerges. Water pushes the char back a bit and brings out more of the lime.
Palate: Comes in sweeter than indicated but all the other stuff from the nose is here. The salt expands as I swallow. Pretty hot at full strength; good texture. More vanilla on the second sip and also some cracked black pepper. Continues in this vein. A splash of water makes it more approachable and also pushes the vanilla back a bit: the pepper and smoke and salt are still dominant.
Finish: Long. The peat and salt dominate. With water the salt comes out on top.
Comments: A blustering, heavily-peated Laphroaig that will not disappoint any fans of that style of whisky. Just a bit too much vanilla for my taste—I’ll be curious to see how that goes with more air in the bottle. By the way, I think I have a bottle left of that 19 yo I mentioned up top. I might open it later this year.
Rating: 85 points.