An Auction Whisky!

Whisky: Laphroaig Triple Wood

Distillery/Brand:
Laphroaig

Bottling:

Laphroaig Triple Wood

Region:
Islay

ABV:
48%

Colour:
Sunlight

Review:
I picked up some whiskies, over this last year, off an auction house, in Scotland.  I'd wanted to purchase an auction house whisky for a while and when I managed to pick up a 30 year old cask strength Caol Ila for 60 pounds I was thrilled.  That was a stupid price!

And then came the delivery charge. 

80 pounds for a single bottle to be delivered. 

Ouch!

So when I saw that if I picked up a few more bottles it'd be more economical to ship them.  So I went a hunting.

And there I picked up a Bowmore Tempest batch 1 for 30 pounds and a bottle of Laphroaig Triple Wood for 20 pounds.

Some pretty decent prices, but by the time I picked up the next two bottles which raised my delivery fee to 100 pounds for the 3 bottles, well I already had my trip to Scotland planned and I reckoned that it'd just be easier to pick up the bottles in person.

Long day at work today, and so I figured that I'd open up my very first bottle of Laphroaig.  Sometimes I feel like there are special moments in a whisky lovers life, moments where you pick up your first bottle of a distillery that you know well, everyone you know drinks, but yet you've never purchased.

Picking up Laphroaig Triple Wood was one of those moments in my life.

So with that thought reverberating around my head this evening, I cracked open the Laphroaig and settled down for a pleasant evening in Islay.

It's called Triple Wood as the whisky is aged in three different types of wood, the first being matured in ex bourbon casks and quarter casks and then finished in European sherry casks.

I hit here watching Justified (great TV series btw!) and the first thing to hit the nose is the smoke, peat and then sherry.

The nose isn't the heavy bonfire smoke that is typical of the 10 year old, but a softer, sweeter nose, mixed up with savory characteristics.

Peat, smoke, sherry, smoked bacon, vanilla, sultanas, apples, slowly the sweetness dissipates and then a thin tendril of wood smoke, like the dying embers of a campfire, swirls up.

Enjoyable nose, not incredibly complex, but still enjoyable.

The palate is smoky with iodine, vanilla, sultanas, some Christmas cake spices so hints of cinnamon and nutmeg, peat and sherry mixing together on the palate.

A mild enjoyable finish of cigarette ash with sultanas finishes the dram off.

This is an interesting departure from your typical Laphroaig and is a nice little addition for those who enjoy their Islay whiskies. 

Definitely worth a try, but nothing about it screams to me that I will always want a bottle in my cabinet. It runs around $110 to $120 AUS a bottle.

Nose:       22/25
Taste:       21/25
Finish:      19/25
Balance:    20/25

Overall:     82/100