Laphroaig 10 YO – then and then

Laphroaig 10 YO bottled >/= 1968 OB 91.4 US Proof imported through Baltimore

Wow, what a palate! Smoke, peat is more vivid than I’ve ever tasted. gritty damp soil, salt, graphite, wet slate, tar, sea spray, damp coffee grounds, tons of rocks but also a touch of black raisins and prunes. Nose shows vanilla cookies, french herbs, dried flowers, potpourri, iodine, linseed oil.

 

Laphroaig 10 YO bottled </= 1968 OB 91.4 US proof imported through Baltimore.

note: these are from the same collector both purchased upon their US release, but bottled perhaps a year apart as the bottles are slightly different (only in the sense that one has raised lettering on the glass)

Nose starts on chalk, slate, old woolens, salted butter, teak, wood polish, leather, soft white pepper, light creosote, linseed oil, slightly mentholated, nettle tea, vanilla, salt-water toffee, soft tar, talc, turmeric, freshly plucked wild mint, damp coffee grounds. Water brings out tons of dried flowers, hot red rocks, black pepper, brown butter, sweet cream, those same dried french herbs, and light brown sugar.

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Jura Prophesy

Honey and caramel backbone with apricots and pineapple providing a bright, acidic note. A taste of pine, cedar, and complex wood fire smoke, with lingering pears in syrup.

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Highland Park 18 Y.O. OB

Stewed apples with cinnamon and caramel, subtle smoke, mint and peppers add a biting top note. Sweet cream, dark damp wood, subtle black licorice, some <developing white flowers, honeysuckle, and fresh apples.

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Highland Park ’91 – ’06 15 Y.O. Single Cask 55.1%

Demerera sugar, tobacco, plump red cherries and raisins, cocoa powder and freshly ground espresso beans, salt, walnuts, bitter blood orange pith, and leather

I didn’t write down who the bottling was for, though I think it was for some US Retailer. As such I can’t very well find a picture of it. This was, I believe, the whisky that made me fall in love with scotch, however. I walked into Federal Wines and Spirits just days after my 21st birthday looking for McCarthy’s Single-Malt out of Oregon and was tasted on this very thing. Of course, it wasn’t for sale so I came away with a G&M Scapa 13 or 14 Y.O. which was actually rather disappointing but I kept at it, and it’s really all thanks to this malt.

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