[WHISKY TASTING] Laphroaig Quarter Cask 🥃
The Arran Bothy last week left me longing for more in terms of Quarter Cask maturation, so I thought I'd get a bottle of Laphroaig Quarter Cask and give it a shot. To make the story short, Laphroaig Quarter Cask is a NAS whisky finished on small barrels, so-called Quarter Cask's that hold 130 liters, compared to standard casks of about 500 liters. This basically allows the raw spirits to get more contact with the oak wood and thus speeds up the maturation.
Laphroaig Quarter Cask
ABV: 48%
Age: NAS (No Age Statement)
Region: Islay
Cask type: First-fill ex-Bourbon Casks & finished on Quarter Casks
Price: ~35 USD / 0.7L
Colored with E150 & Non-chillfiltered
Appearance: Pale gold (they've been careful with the artificial color, thankfully.)
Nose: Bonfire smoke and lemongrass together with an assortment of fresh herbs. Very fresh and invigorating nose. With a few drops of water toffee, tar and vanilla emerges. The vanilla is much more prominent than in the regular 10-year-old. The smoke gets more and more medicinal and carries wonderful fruity notes of orange, grapefruit and apricot preserve. Wonderful!
Palate: I don't know wether it's the higher alcohol or the Quarter Casks, but yes, this one is more flavorful than the 10-year-old. Plenty of wood and white pepper accompanied by vanilla, sweet floral notes, ash and seaweed. There's also a wonderful and balancing saltiness. With a few drops of water the phenols are opening up and more medicinal notes emerge, together with something that reminds me of lemon-licorice candy.
Finish: Medium-dry, long and quite minty. At the very end there's a note that I could describe as sweet figs that have been mashed together with tar and ash.
Conclusion: A wonderfully chiselled NAS whisky that packs plenty of flavor and is surprisingly complex. I personally prefer this over the regular 10-year-old. Please make quarter cask maturation a trend! I can't justify a lower score than 90 points out of 100.
My favorite from Laphroaig :)
A worthy post! follow me)
You have a good sense for details. Would love to lap up some! :)
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