13/04/2026 Laphwoar

Laphroaig 31yo 1974/2005 (49.7%, OB for La Maison du Whisky, Sherry Wood Casks, 910b, b#652): nose: phwoar! It has few fruits to begin with, if any; instead, we find tyres warmed by an hour on the race track, distant smoke and marzipan. Then, it is a scallop roll splashed with pressed-prune juice, and the water of rehydrated raisins and figs. I remember finding it rubbery, the first time, some twenty years ago, and, indeed, it has some of that, yet it is so well integrated, now, that it certainly does not tarnish the pleasure. It turns earthier, with dark mud and tarry soil, but we never shake off the prunes. With some insistence, we may spot caramelised lychee in amongst the earthy dried fruits and potting soil, as well as honey-glazed button mushrooms. The second nose brings a vaguely-maritime allure, scents of diesel and sea breeze in the sun-drenched harbour. Suddenly, a costermonger drives by in a van. Unripe bananas, plums, pomegranates, passion fruits, blueberries, mulberries, hazelnuts still attached to a cut branch, quinces and longans. There is a whisper of gas and faint manure too, as if the van were displacing a sewer's manhole, and that is oddly original. It any case, it is not a bright and clear fruitiness; it wrestles with darker, dirtier notes of rubber, smoke and decay. Mouth: immensely smoky on entry, peaty, borderline ashy. Half a chew creates an onslaught of fruits, tropical and otherwise, with dark cherries, purple passion fruits, smoked carambolas, cured peaches, caramelised lychees and snakehead fruits. It then produces a big slap of burnt wood and burnt tyre, with the latter becoming the dominant, acrid, bitter, sticky. More chewing helps us claw back some fruits coated in tar. The second sip appears more acidic and has brighter cherries (Lambert or even Rainier), a hazelnut paste made of unripe hazelnuts, gooseberry jelly, pink passion fruits and plums. Chewing increases the depth and we find that nectarines replace our plums, cured peaches and purple passion fruits (louder and louder) accompanied by a growing smoke, albeit thinner than earlier, acrid, yet still fruity, as emitted by a fire of fruit-tree wood. Caramelised lychee comes back to the fore too. Finish: it is tar and burnt rubber at first, and the acrid black smoke takes a while to settle. When it does, the costermonger is back. On the stall this time, caramelised chestnut shells. Behind them stand smoked cherries, cured peaches and apricots, rehydrated raisins and currants, prunes, smoked purple passion fruits, fresh figs, longans and chikoo. All that is experienced in a shed filled with dark smoke, surrounded by tyres and rubber fenders. The second gulp has bolder wood -- polished walnut armchairs in a room that also has an open fire. That introduces forest fruits such as bilberries, blackcurrants, myrtles, then smoked greengages, only to die with a kick of fleeting unripe passion fruit, which is to say it has a mild bitterness. All in all, it seems more youthful and uncouth than earlier in the year, but no less complex and enjoyable. To be perfectly clear, this is a masterpiece worthy of an irrepressible 'phwoar'. 10/10 (Thanks for the sample, dom666)