Whisky Review: SMWS 29.130 "A Chimney Sweep Smoking a Cigar"

Between the loss of the distillery's 18 year old expression and the dearth of casks beyond their mid-teens from independent bottlers, older Laphroaig is becoming a rare commodity and costs the earth when you can find it. So I was quite lucky to be able to try this one.

This was distilled at Laphroaig on May 4th 1993, filled into a refill ex-bourbon hogshead, and bottled 19 years later at 52.1% without coloring or chill filtration.

Thanks to Dave McEldowney of PDXWhisky for letting me sample this whisky.

SMWS 29.130 "A Chimney Sweep Smoking a Cigar"

Nose: initially rather closed, mossy peat smoke, cigarette/wood ash, stones/earth, seashore salinity, fresh malt, violets/lavender in the background, berries, cured meat. After adding a few drops of water, it becomes greener, seaweed, unripe apples and pears, lemon, pine/juniper, and strong nutmeg emerge, plus more cured meat.

Taste: cask strength sweetness up front, sliding through berries, honey, mossy peat smoke, dark chocolate/cacao, toasted/charred oak, and espresso. After dilution, it is sweeter overall, but more mellow, with less peat but more fresh vegetation, and subtle lemon acidity (but not peel).

Finish: cappuccino, oak, mossy peat

This is exactly what I want out of older Laphroaig. While the spirit has mellowed slightly, its inherent character has not been diminished by the cask, but rather accented. The nose is complex and engaging while the flavors evolve over the palate from brighter sweetness towards darker bittersweet flavors of peat and oak. Sadly this expression is long gone and teenage Laphroaigs have gotten wildly expensive, so it's hard to find anything comparable that doesn't cost crazy money. But it is good to see that older Laphroaigs, unlike the OB 18 Year, don't necessarily have to be soft.

Whisky Review: Laphroaig 10 Year Cask Strength Batch 006

Laphroaig 10 Year Cask Strength used to be praised to the heavens among enthusiasts as an unadulterated glimpse into the distillery's character. But starting with Batch 005 this trend came to something of a screeching halt, with many (myself included) finding it over-oaked to the point of washing out a lot of trademark peat. So when Batch 006 was released in 2014 it was an open question whether the malt could return to form or would continue in the direction of Quarter Cask and other oak-driven releases from Laphroaig.

This whisky was aged entirely in first-fill ex-bourbon casks and bottled at 58.0% without chill filtration but probably with coloring (does Laphroaig leave any of their releases untouched?).

Laphroaig CS 006 at 58%

Nose: thick mossy peat smoke, wood ashes, coal dust, warm caramel, undergirding oak, cured meat, sweet berries. After adding a few drops of water the peat becomes softer, a little floral perfume, nutmeg, and cinnamon come out, and the oak becomes fresher.

Taste: cask strength thickness that gives it an almost raisin-y character, moderately sweet up front, but quickly balanced by oak tannins, peat weaving a thin thread through everything, growing bitter and earthy with coal/tar at the back. After dilution the peat mostly fades into the background with only the coal/tar at the back remaining and the oak becomes somewhat more subdued and less bitter.

Finish: bitter oak, black earth, overcooked caramel

While more balanced than Batch 005, this is still leaning too heavily on the oak for character and sweetness. Admittedly these notes are coming from the bottom of the bottle, so it might have been a bit more lively when it was first opened, but I don't remember it being markedly different then.

As I always try to do with cask strength expressions, I also made dilutions and let them integrate for several weeks before sampling them.

Laphroaig CS 006 at 50%

Nose: evenly balanced between mossy/twiggy peat and oak, fresh timber, iodine, pencil lead, dry malt

Taste: very sweet up front - malt and wood sugars carry through nearly to the back with a gentle peat-y undercurrent, a twang of muddled berries in the middle, rising oak tannins and more peat at the very back

Finish: sharp oak tannins, earthy peat residue, malt in the background

There are things I like about the whisky at this strength, namely the peat being relatively in balance with the oak on the nose. But the flavors seem kind of washed out by sweetness that crowds out much of anything else going on. This feels closer to Batch 005, but without quite as much oak.

Laphroaig CS 006 at 45%

Nose: rather dry overall, lots of soft, mossy Laphroaig peat, cured meat, berries, solid oak, barrel char, creamy malt

Taste: sweet malt with a touch of oak up front, joined by mossy peat in the background and light berry/ginger overtones in the middle, plus a growing tide of oak near the back - though never becoming overly tannic

Finish: oak, malt, peat, barrel char

Comparing this side-by-side with the standard 10 Year at 43%, the watered down Cask Strength still has noticeably more punch, especially in terms of peat and oak. While the more common version is still a fire breather to the uninitiated, it seems downright soft and sweet compared to the Cask Strength, even at similar ABVs. With that said, the familial resemblance is pretty clear, suggesting that the casks being chosen for each expression are relatively similar, though it's to be expected that the standard 10 Year will have a greater amount of cask averaging than the small batch Cask Strength.

I don't think this is bad whisky, but it's also not what I was hoping for. While I've heard some positive reviews of subsequent batches and that they've gotten less oak-heavy, I've been burned twice and am somewhat disinclined to pony up for more.

Whisky Review: Laphroaig 10 Year

Laphroaig - love it or hate it. For some, the long-standing 10 Year release has been an old friend, a wild beast that they keep coming back to. For others, it is so loathed that shots are used as punishment. And I would have agreed with the latter sentiment even a handful of years ago.

While I had made an effort to try whiskies from all the distilleries I would visit during my trip to Scotland before leaving the States I didn't get in any Laphroaig, which meant that it first passed my lips at the distillery. Thankfully by then I was already well into my love affair with peat, so I didn't find the downright aggressive flavors off-putting. But it still took a while to really explore what the distillery has been doing.

When I first tried Laphroaig 10 Year on a cold February night, I was not impressed. It seemed somewhat thin and lacking in oomph. But that was literally the last pour from a bottle at a bar, so who knows how much it had oxidized before I took that first sip.

So I finally got back to basics after buying a couple of bottles when they were mysteriously discounted in Oregon one month a few years ago.

This whisky is aged entirely in first-fill ex-bourbon barrels from the Maker's Mark distillery, then bottled at 43% with coloring and chill filtration.

Laphroaig 10 Year

Nose: layers of smoke and peat - burning pine boughs, cigarette ash, coal, and tar - juniper, seaweed, raspberries, strawberries, and gentle floral notes underneath, creamy malt, dry hay. After adding a few drops of water the smoke and malt become more integrated, bringing forward the dry malt character, and some of the classic iodine notes finally come out.

Taste: sweet malt and oak up front, shifts into two layers - ashy and mossy peat on top with growing oak tannins plus continuing sweetness with gentle berry and citrus notes on the bottom, juniper/pine comes out around the back with fresh soil and mossier peat. After dilution the relative places of the components change while the overall character remains similar - the opening has cleaner malt followed by mellow oak, with the peat shifting into more of an undercurrent.

Finish: fresh soil, mossy peat, coal, moderate oak, dry malt

While I've come to enjoy Laphroaig a lot, the official releases from the distillery have so far left me a little underwhelmed. While it seems like the entire point of the distillery is its big, robust spirit, the OBs all feel like they're trying too hard to soften the spirit and cover it up with oak. The 10 Year is less problematic in that respect than Quarter Cask or even recent batches of the 10 Year Cask Strength, but it still feels a little too tame for my liking. Admittedly, that may just be me because even at a reduced strength this whisky has the ability to nearly clear a room with its smell, but I'd still rather have less cask influence. While we're at it I'd love if Laphroaig switched to craft presentation for all their whiskies, but that will likely take a major shock to sales to make them reformulate their admittedly very successful products.

Experimental Whisky: Hazelburn/Tamdhu/Laphroaig Blended Malt

This blended whisky came about as I was tossing things together. Hazelburn 8 Year Cask Strength and Signatory Tamdhu 8 Year Cask Strength have both been staples of my blending projects, so I wanted to try them together. I eventually decided that the mix needed a bit more peat, so I added a drop of Laphroaig 10 Year Cask Strength. That really seemed to pull it together, especially after adding a bit of water, so I decided to make a more formal blend at roughly 50% ABV.

•12 mL Hazelburn 8 Year Cask Strength
•12 mL Signatory Tamdhu 8 Year Cask Strength
•1.5 mL Laphroaig 10 Year Cask Strength
•4.5 mL water

Hazelburn/Tamdhu/Laphroaig Blend

Nose: very green, mossy peat, seaweed, salty sea air, sweet malt, porridge, sherry, raisins, polished wood. After adding a few drops of water, some nice cured ham notes come out, the sherry takes on more berry character, the oak gets spicier, and the new make character is somewhat suppressed, coming out as pine instead,

Taste: fresh malt with mild sherry sweetness up front, quickly picking up mossy peat, fresh green vegetables, with polished oak and a Campbeltown twist near the back. After dilution, the oak becomes more prominent, integrating with the sherry and spreading across the palate, with the Campbeltown and Islay peat just riding above it.

Finish: Campbeltown and Islay character - both peat and malt, sea air, well-integrated oak

This feels like almost, but not quite, like a success. The Campbeltown character of the Hazelburn and the Islay character of the Laphroaig are a good balance for the cleaner Speyside character of the sherried Tamdhu. However I think the Hazelburn is just a bit too underdone to fit with the other two components, so it didn't come together quite like I would have hoped. I think what I'd like to do is remake this after I open up a bottle of Springbank 10 Year/100-proof, which should be similar but fit the profile better. This is a learning process.

OLCC Follies

Edit: looks like I was wrong and the mistake was at the level of the supplier

Oregon is a control state, with a twist.

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) buys, distributes, and owns the liquor before it is sold. The retail stores are, however, private businesses. The OLCC sets prices and each part of the system takes a predefined cut.

As part of this system, price changes are posted online roughly a week or two before they are reset at the beginning of each month. For those in the know, it gives a heads up for spirits that will be rising or falling in price, so that it's possible to know whether it's better to buy now or wait until later.

On last month's price change list, Laphroaig 10 Year was listed as going down in price by $29.70, which would make its retail price come November an unreasonably low $20.25. I literally burst out laughing when I saw that line, because I assumed that it must have been a mistake and that it would be corrected before the end of the month.

Much to my surprise on November 1st, the online system indicated that, yes, a $20 bill and some change would buy you an entire bottle of Islay single malt whisky. I let my friends know and figured that everyone who wanted some would be able to snag a few.

But that was not to be. I was far from the only person clued into the radical price change. Nearly every store I or anyone else I know went to had any left on their shelves. After calling around to half a dozen stores on Sunday, only one in Portland had even a single bottle on hand. One store employee told me that someone had been waiting at their door before they opened Saturday morning and then proceeded to clear them out. So some people were clearly being more systematic about it than I was and reaped the rewards.

Scuttlebutt from another store employee is that the OLCC really did just make a mistake, but felt bound to honor the price they had posted. This has resulted in a classic economics outcome: a commodity is briefly under-priced by government fiat, which clears out stock on hand, but it can't be restocked because the retail price is below the wholesale price. Two days into November, the Portland area is basically denuded, and it won't be restocked until December when the price can be reset to a more reasonable point. I have a feeling that in a week or two there will be some confused and angry people who can't buy their usual bottle of whisky and will be told that there won't be any more for a while. That might get some of them to try alternatives like Laphroaig Quarter Cask or Ardbeg 10 Year, but not everyone is likely to be placated by substitutes.

I managed to get my hands on two bottles and think that's more than enough for my own consumption, but it also signals the end of FOAFing opportunities for most. The knowledge has spread far enough that you have to be awfully quick on the draw to take advantages of big price changes occasionally offered by the OLCC.

Whisky Review: Laphroaig Cask Strength Batch 005

For a number of years now, Laphroaig has been releasing their ten year old cask strength whisky in batches, roughly one a year, since 2009. While nominally forced to do so by the SWA, it has had the added benefit of making them even more popular, as whisky geeks try to hunt down every batch in an effort to see how they are different from each other. We're now up to the sixth release in America, but I'm a little behind the times. Thankfully, unlike Europe, batches don't tend to sell out immediately over here.

Nominally, this is roughly the same whisky that goes into the standard 10 Year, but undiluted and un-chill filtered. Batch 005 was bottled at at pretty hefty 57.2% and was released in February 2013.

Laphroaig Cask Strength Batch 005

Nose: classic Laphroaig malt character, fresh grain and the earth it was grown in, leafy/mossy peat, vanilla, thick slab of oak, putty, dusty pepper. After adding a few drops of water, the grain becomes fresher and more prominent, the peat becomes more mossy, some sandalwood incense smoke pops out, and it gains an almost buttery quality.

Taste: thick cask strength caramel sweetness throughout, sharp, heavy oak quickly descends on the palate, almost obscuring the peat. After dilution, the palate becomes almost aggressively sweet, the sugars integrate with the oak, the peat almost disappears until the very end, and some bourbon cask berry/fruit notes emerge in the middle.

Finish: moderately bitter oak tannins, day-old ashes, malt and peat peek around the edges

More than anything else, this feels like an even more amped-up version of Quarter Cask. You have the same basic elements - lots of sweetness, lots of wood, and less peat than you might expect. Laphroaig seems to be shifting towards managing their casks for maximum extraction, which, to me, results in minimal complexity. I will give some points to the nose, but the taste seems like a huge let-down in comparison. After trying the dilutions I made, I also notice that this takes a lot more time to open up at full strength.

Laphroaig Cask Strength at 50%

Nose: noticeably more fruit/berry notes than the other strengths, strong undercurrent of toasted oak, backed up by creamy fresh vanilla malt, peat is very mossy and subdued, dusty soil, honey,

Taste:very oak-driven, with wood and malt sweetness up front flowing into polished wood, fruit/berry esters, black pepper, and oak tannins integrated with peat, to give a somewhat astringent character, with a final puff of mossy peat right at the back

Finish: polished oak, phenolic tannins, a mix of fresh and decaying vegetation, ink

This may be my favorite strength. While the wood is starting to dominate, it hasn't obliterated the Laphroaig character like it does undiluted. Additionally, while the flavors and aromas are at a solid level of intensity, the alcohol doesn't make itself too apparent and it opens up more quickly than at full strength. This makes me wish for an NAS Laphroaig at 50% without any fancy casks. Just give it to me raw.

Laphroaig Cask Strength at 45%

Nose: mossy Laphroaig peat with a touch of ash is much more evident and rides on top of the other aromas, fresh ground malt and bread dough just underneath, with a touch of seashore air and berries, oak is minimal and well-integrated

Taste: clean sweetness dominates up front, with a brief burst of bourbon barrel berry/fruit esters, becoming someone flat in the middle before fading out with fresh malt and mild mossy peat, while the oak and vanilla sit under everything else - adding a layer of richness

Finish: gentle peat and malt

This brings the spirit more in line with its reduce 10 Year brethren, though I find it interesting that the taste has less intensity than the standard 10Year at 43%. Though this integrated for several weeks, it still seems a bit watery, though not offensively so. Just goes to show that casks that work well at full strength are not necessarily the same ones that work well when they are reduced.

As a side-note, one thing I noticed after making these dilutions was that the one at 45% was obviously cloudy - there's a good reason the cut-off for non-chill filtered whiskies is usually 46%.

Overall, I have to say that this whisky wasn't what I was hoping for. After reading reviews of earlier batches, it sounded like Cask Strength had minimal cask impact, opting instead to let the unique character of Laphroaig's spirit shine. So this more oak-driven release was something of a disappointment. It's not bad whisky, it's just that it feels like they're trying to cover something up, instead of letting the peat shine. Thankfully it sounds like Batch 006 may have returned to their original formula, so I have hopes that this was an aberration rather than the direction in which Laphroaig is taking all of their whiskies.

Whisky Review: Laphroaig 18 Year

The 18 Year is currently the oldest standard expression in the Laphroaig stable (older expressions are released more haphazardly - if you'd like to read about them, I'll point you towards Michael Kravitz's blog). It was brought in a few years ago to replace the previous 15 Year expression, both moving up the value chain a bit and bringing something more approachable to a rather aggressive set of whiskies.

Unlike the 10 Year, this older whisky is bottled at a very respectable 48% without chill filtration.

Thanks to Florin for the sample.

© Laphroaig

Laphroaig 18 Year

Nose: gentle savory Laphroaig peat (a bit more vegetal than smoky) over warm caramel and malt, floral, hints of green fruit, vanilla (growing with time), salty/maritime, threads of charred/smoky oak, roasted veggies, sweet bubblegum. After adding a few drops of water, the malt becomes dominant with floral notes tucked inside, abundant vanilla, less peat and oak, sweet salted caramels, wood smoke, and the bubblegum becomes fruitier.

Taste: fairly classic Laphroaig profile but softer, alcohol is noticeable with sweet vanilla and caramel throughout, a bit vegetal with green apple sourness near the front, some peppery bitter oak and a touch of salty/dirty peat near the back. After dilution, peat, pepper, and oak become much stronger from the mid-palate to the back, the sourness is accentuated and integrates with the peat, there's more bourbon barrel fruit, malt, and wood, plus some cigarette ash at the back, the vanilla isn't as strong but feels more out of place, and it is more savory overall.

Finish: dirty peat and oak, sour floral notes, malty vanilla

I had high hopes for this before opening the sample. While I generally like Laphroaig's profile, it helps to have a higher bottling proof (the Cask Strength has been my favorite so far) and the age should have mellowed it a bit.

However, I felt like the spirit had given up a bit too much to the barrel. The peat has receded to almost a whisper and on my first tasting the vanilla was nearly overwhelming. It felt out of kilter, rather than being a pleasant, integrated experience. This is a shame as the 18 Year is actually pretty reasonably priced in Oregon compared to other states, so I was hoping to have found a great deal.

This makes me rather sad that I missed out on the 15 Year. Having tried a few of Laphroaig's whiskies, it seems like that would be a sweet spot - not too old, but not too young. However, I suspect that the 18 Year's weaknesses are largely by design - Laphroaig wanted to produce an expression that would cater to people who wanted a sweeter, less aggressive whisky. Sweet and smoky sells these days.

Whisky Review: Laphroaig Cairdeas 2013

Since I wasn't able to do one of the most in-depth tastings/tours at Laphroaig, I decided to sample some of their whisky after I got back into Port Ellen.

Laphroaig Cairdeas 2013

Nose: big blast of Laphroaig peat (roasted vegetables/wood smoke/medicinal), rather dry (though getting sweeter with time), underlying malt, a little green, vanilla. After adding a few drops of water, the peat shifts to more of a mossy/barbecue mode, but otherwise the nose doesn't change much.

Taste: lots of port cask influence up front (rather pink), then it drifts back into malt, oak, and peat, with the peat and oak making the opening bittersweet, which eventually fades into port and malt sweetness at the back, with some cracked pepper, and a very thick mouthfeel overall. After dilution, the port starts to dominate, making it much sweeter overall, with some chocolate and roasted coffee beans joining the peat at the back.

Finish: light port cask influence, malt, lingering peat and oak residue, bittersweet

This just doesn't quite work for me, but that's largely because it's the rare port cask whisky that hits the mark on my taste buds. If this had been a sherry cask, I think it would have been stellar, because that layer of fruitiness makes for a great counterpoint to Laphroaig's dry smoke. But if you happen to like both port casks and smoke, it should be a good pick.

Whisky Review: Laphroaig Quarter Cask

I've talked about Laphroaig Quarter Cask before, largely in terms of its place in the growing world of NAS whiskies and later after I had toured the distillery.

Quarter Cask was the first NAS whisky in Laphroaig's (growing) line-up. The spirit is aged for a number of years (6-8 seems like a decent guess), then transferred to 13 gallon 'quarter casks' as a finish. The rate of extraction from the wood is highly dependent on the surface area:volume ratio, so 'woody' flavors are extracted more quickly from these smaller casks. The whisky is then proofed down to 48%, which is a fair bit higher than the standard 10 Year, and non-chill filtered, which is also not the case with the standard 10 Year. This is an approach that requires more attention from the master blender, as the rates of maturation in the quarter casks will be more variable than with standard ex-bourbon barrels.

There are partisans on both sides, some who prefer the slightly more mellow 10 Year while others are head-over-heels for the intensity of the Quarter Cask. I've been curious to see how they would match up.

Thanks to Michael Kravitz for the sample.

© Laphroaig

Laphroaig Quarter Cask (2010)

Nose: very woody, classic Laphroaig peat, wood/malt sugars, fresh timber, vegetal/herbal, malty, creamy vanilla, bourbon barrel berries. After adding a few drops of water, it becomes a bit more subdued, the malt moves forward, and the wood and smoke integrate.

Taste: billowing dry woodsmoke, rather sour up front, some malty sweetness at the back, black pepper, subtle hints of fruitiness, some anise. After dilution, it becomes sweeter and less our throughout, a lot the malt becomes more prominent, wood and smoke come in later, and there are hints of orange peel.

Finish: lots of pepper, peat, and oak, malty underneath, cough syrup

While I can see the appeal of this whisky, it's not quite my cup of tea. Though not immature, it doesn't have a lot of nuance - the flavors are relatively simple and in your face. The lack of an age statement lets Laphroaig put younger whisky into the bottle, which preserves the intensity of the peat smoke from the original spirit. The quarter casks are also very evident because this one is a short hop away from containing a lumber yard. The higher bottling proof compared to the 10 Year also helps to give this expression more heft, though I didn't feel like there was too much alcoholic heat.

This is one to grab if you've already tried Laphroaig and thought "I like this, but I want even more smoke." If you're not acquainted with Laphroaig, I wouldn't start here. It's definitely a beast.

Scotland 2013: Campbeltown to Islay and Laphroaig Distillery

The day began cold and wet. Not exactly ideal conditions when I needed to get on the road promptly, but it wasn't like I had any other options. After a solid breakfast (thanks again, David and Jean), I threw my panniers to the bike, put on my rain gear, turned on all my bike lights, and was heading north on the A road by 6:45 AM. Thankfully, since it was early Sunday morning, there was almost no traffic. I chugged NW, fighting a headwind in addition to the rain. Thankfully the weather decided to break not long after I made it to the coast and the road turned north.

This was the point where I truly realized the depth of my mistake in taking the B road two days before. The A road is infinitely more pleasant and easier to ride. While there are hills, they were usually gentle and weren't the interminable slogs that one finds on the east side of Kintyre. Live and learn, I suppose.

It started raining again only a few miles from Kennacraig, which unfortunately meant that I was pretty much soaked by the time I rolled into the ferry terminal. However, that was pretty minor in comparison to the fact that I had managed to ride over 30 miles to reach my destination with time to spare. I rolled my bike onto the ferry, tied it up, and walked upstairs to the observation lounge.

I made one mistake at this point, though it was through ignorance more than anything else. It turns out that passengers aren't allowed on the car deck while the ferry is underway. I was so tired that I hadn't gone back down to grab anything else out of my panniers before we left the dock, so I was stuck in wet clothes with nothing to entertain me but my iPhone (with diminishing battery power) for several hours. While it was far from the end of the world, I was definitely kicking myself.

There wasn't much to look at after we passed out of sight of the Kintyre peninsula. It was still fairly cloudy, so the water and sky formed an almost uniform bubble around the ferry. After something like an hour and a half, we finally sited the Islay coast. It slid by rapidly and I got my one opportunity to see the Kildalton distilleries from the water.

Ardbeg - the first distillery we passed

Lagavulin on the left, Ardbeg on the right - they really are that close to each other

Laphroaig on its pretty bay

The industrial bulk of the Port Ellen maltings overshadowing the remaining distillery buildings

We pulled into Port Ellen right on time and it was a short walk to the Askernish B&B where I would be staying for the next two nights. Joy had been very helpful when I told her I would be getting in early (and likely damp), so my room was ready when I got to the door. I was able to stash my bike in an outbuilding out back, then took a much needed shower before looking for lunch. After a quick bite that the CyberCafe in the local community center, I walked down the road towards Laphroaig, which was only a few miles outside of town. I had originally wanted to do Laphroaig's "Water to Whisky" tour, but the distillery was going to be shut down Monday through Wednesday for a staff retreat, so I had been forced to settle for the standard tour.

While it was still cloudy and rather blustery, the walk was actually rather pleasant. I had to keep an eye out for cars coming down the road as there wasn't much of a shoulder, but once again most of the drivers were polite and gave me plenty of space. The southern end of Islay has an austere beauty, as most of the terrain is rock and grass, with only occasional stands of trees.

The first sight of Laphroaig is actually their warehouses alongside the main road. In some ways they feel very representative of the distillery itself, with a mix of old and new.

The bulk of the distillery is hidden behind a small, neat forest, which opens up to reveal a cluster of whitewashed buildings.

It's hard to avoid the sense that Laphroaig is an industrial site. While the kiln's pagodas provide a quaint touch, the newer buildings are all business.

I had arrived a bit early for my tour, so I wandered around the distillery grounds and peeked into the visitor center.

The small group clustered around as Danielle began our tour. We began with the malt barns, where Laphroaig malts ~20% of the total barley they use, with the balance coming from Port Ellen.

After germinating the barley, it is smoked for 20 hours, consuming 2 tons of peat in the process, to a final phenol content of 40 PPM. The peat needs to be damp, but not wet, to produce smoke instead of fire - peat used for heating tends to be bone dry, so it burns much more cleanly. We learned that peat cut by hand retains more moisture than peat cut mechanically, so Laphroaig sticks to using hand cut peat in their kiln. The remaining hot air used to get the moisture content sufficiently low is cleverly recycled from the waste heat thrown off by the stills. We got to see the inside of their kiln, but they were getting ready to shut down the distillery for a few days, so it wasn't in use.

Peat, ready to be added to the kiln

From there we moved to the mash tun and washbacks. This was quite a turn from the very traditional malt floors and kiln - Laphroaig uses all stainless steel for their mash tun and washbacks, which gives the space a very industrial look. It wasn't always this way, but it is the direction that Laphroaig has moved in over time.

The single enormous mash tun

Washbacks with fitted pipes for venting carbon dioxide

Stainless steel was introduced in the 1970s, when the distillery was owed by the English brewer Whitbread. This likely helps to ensure consistency, as steel can be more thoroughly cleaned, meaning that the only microorganisms present during fermentation should be the dried Mauri yeast that Laphroaig now uses. Fermentation is generally short, at 55 hours, producing wort at ~8% ABV, which leans towards getting as much alcohol out of the malt as quickly as possible, in contrast to, say, Springbank. Though for all of that, its yield is almost exactly the same as the other Islay distilleries, despite all the variations in production method between them.

We got to try some of the fresh wash which was, to put it mildly, unpalatable. It's essentially very peaty beer, but unclarified, which means that it is also very, very yeasty. Thankfully they don't stop at that point.

We stepped across the main courtyard into the stillhouse. Laphroaig possesses a motley collection of stills - four spirit stills of varying size and three wash stills. This is because a) the stills were installed at different times as production capacity was expanded and b) the stillhouse is relatively small, which prevented a smaller number of larger stills from being put in.

The wash stills are of fairly standard construction, though smaller (10,500 liters) than any other on the island save those of the tiny Kilchoman distillery. They are charged to 83.5% of capacity, which reduces the copper contact, producing a heavier spirit. At the same time, they are relatively tall for their size and the lyne arms rise slightly, which increases reflux and gives a lighter spirit.

The low wines are then charged into their spirit stills. These are also very, very tiny considering the output of the distillery, with capacities of 4,700 and 9,400 liters. These are also charged near capacity to reduce copper contact. However, the lamp glass shape, with a narrow throat opening into a wider neck along with the slightly rising lyne arms will all increase reflux, giving a lighter spirit. Laphroaig makes its spirit cuts from 72-62.4%, which leaves out most of the lighter vapors while retaining more of the heavier ones (though not as much as, say, Ardbeg). This gives a very smoke-focused spirit, without some of the lighter fruity compounds that end up in the broad foreshots cut.

The new make spirit is then cut down to a standard 63.5% and filled almost exclusively into first-fill bourbon barrels, mostly from Maker's Mark. As Laphroaig is now owned by Fortune Brands, who also own Jim Beam and Maker's Mark, there is always a ready supply of fresh ex-bourbon barrels. That used to be just about it for Laphroaig, though they have now branched out into various cask finishes, such as sherry, quarter casks, and new oak. We got to glance inside one of the low-ceilinged dunnage warehouses, but sadly weren't able to go in.

What the mold adds to the maturing whisky, nobody knows 

After the tour wrapped up we got to sample a number of different Laphroaig single malts. I particularly enjoyed the 10 Year Cask Strength (though unfortunately it's been rather tricky to find a bottle since returning to the States).

Considering everything I had seen, Laphroaig seems to be an exercise in tension between past and present. Even looking into their own visitor center, one can see some of the ways that the distillery has changed over time. For a good overview, scroll down for the "Laphroaig, Flavour and Accountants" story on Laphroaig Collector.

The old stillhouse, with worm tub condensers

Installing modern condensers

Currently, the fact that Laphroaig still does some of its own malting is a direct link to the past when the distillery supplied all of its own malt. However, it is also in tension with the future - their own maltings are operating more or less at capacity, yet serve to fill only 20% of their needs. This proportion is already a significant drop from the mid-20th century, when all needs were met in-house. As production has expanded, they have been steadily reducing the ratio and further expansion will require even more dilution. If their floor maltings don't contribute something special to the whisky, why keep them going? Their malt is going to be much more expensive and labor-intensive than what they buy from Port Ellen.

Another example would be the shift towards NAS single malts. Laphroaig used to have a rather limited portfolio - the standard 10 Year, a 10 Year Cask Strength, 15 Year and occasional special 25 and 30 Year releases. The 15 Year has since been replaced with an 18 Year, while the rest of the range has been supplemented with an increasing number of NAS malts. It began with the Quarter Cask, which begins life in the usual first-fill bourbon casks, but is then transferred to smaller quarter casks for a short period of time. The result is similar to, but not the same as, the 10 Year and prices are generally on par between the two. Since then a number of other expressions have come out, usually first in duty free shops. The Triple Wood is similar to the QC, but adds an additional layer of sherry cask maturation on top. PX Cask and QA Cask (fresh oak casks) have also made appearances. These are all a significant departure from tradition, as Laphroaig maintained a sort of 'no funny business' policy when it came to wood management for many decades. The current direction seems to be acknowledging the fact that the distillery has limited supplies that it is attempting to stretch via various cask finishes, which allow them to release 'mature' whisky in less time. While this is generally the direction that the industry is taking as a whole, it does significantly change the nature of the spirit Laphroaig is bottling now compared to ten or twenty years ago.

With all that said, it's clear that Laphroaig has staked out a solid niche for itself in the whisky world. As others have put it, they're the Marmite of scotch - you either love it or hate it. And those who love it really love it. There really isn't anything else on the market with the same quality of smokiness to it, which is quite intense despite having a lower peating level than Ardbeg (though I'll explain some of why when I talk about touring that distillery). I'll be exploring their malts more in future, to try to get my head around them.

My walk back to Port Ellen from the distillery was, if anything, even more pleasant as I was warmed by the smoky drams I had consumed. It was really nice to be able to move at a slower pace, soaking up the landscape and giving myself time to ruminate about the place I had just visited. The smell of peat fires added to the sense of place as I got closer to town, wreathing the place in a warm and pleasant reek.

I ended up going to an Indian restaurant in Port Ellen for dinner - one of the residual benefits of empire appears to be decent food from the subcontinent just about everywhere in Scotland. After that I popped into the bar next door to the B&B where I was staying. After peeking at their fairly broad selection of single malts, I settled on the most recent Laphroaig Cairdeas release. Even more enjoyable than the whisky was the company - I ran into several couples who I had met over the course of the day, either on the ferry or at the distillery. I even ended up being introduced to another couple from Portland who were also on Islay to see some of the distilleries. All in all, it was a fun evening and a really nice way to end a long day.

It was quite satisfying to crawl into bed, knowing that I had the other two Kildalton distilleries to look forward to the next day.