Laphroaig QA Cask - Review
Age: No age statement
Barrel type: ex-bourbon barrels, then finished in fresh American oak (quercus alba, or QA) barrels
Region: Islay
ABV: 40%
Price: $70 for 1L
Additional details: likely chill filtered, color added
A friend sent a sample of this along, so I initially thought I'd just wrap it into a Penny for Your Thoughts. However, I felt it'd be worth talking a little bit about how travel retail status can influence the perceptions of a scotch, which is a big part of the QA story.
Laphroaig QA Cask is a travel retail exclusive released by Laphroaig a few years ago. The distinctive innovation here is that the whisky is aged initially in ex-bourbon barrels, like almost all Laphroaigs, and then transferred to fresh oak casks for finishing -- an interesting twist because the fresh oak cask is the staple for aging bourbon. This makes Laphroaig QA Cask in some ways the Islay answer to Glenfiddich's 14-year Bourbon Reserve release, which also receives extra time using a more bourbon-like aging technique. Unlike that release, however, Laphroaig QA Cask does not specify how long it spends in either type of barrel, so for all we know this could be more like the distillery's Quarter Cask release (aged for five years in ex-bourbon and then transferred to smaller casks for less than a year for an accelerated aging).
There are probably as many opinions about travel retail exclusives as there are actual travel retail exclusives nowadays. It's a brilliant marketing and sales tactic. Because these "exclusive" expressions are only available in airport duty-free shops, they have a few notable advantages: (1) travelers are bored and mostly in a mood to spend money; (2) they can't compare prices between the exclusive and their local liquor store price for the same bottle; and (3) the limited time anyone spends in an airport means there's a false sense of urgency or FOMO ("fear of missing out") distorting one's decisionmaking. Because the sellers have such an advantage over buyers in this market, it stands to reason that they can skimp on quality. And, unfortunately, that is true of many travel retail exclusives, most of which don't have age statements and emphasize flashy packaging and marketing speak ("rare," "finest," "unique") over what's in the bottle.
The flip side is that travel retail is a huge market, and because distilleries get those built-in advantages, they can afford to take more risks and push the frontiers. Some experiments may be more successful than others, giving the distillery insight into potential new customer bases or novelties that gain widespread and unexpected acclaim. Laphroaig seems to be a particularly aggressive but, for the most part, good distillery in the travel retail space. For instance, their PX Cask is virtually identical to their generally available Triple Wood expression, just with the final stage of finishing done in PX sherry rather than Oloroso sherry casks. Best of all, the price of PX Cask is comparable to, or even lower than, Triple Wood (after taking into account the fact that the travel retail bottle is a 1 liter tall boy), so Laphroaig fans get a variant of a popular expression that doesn't skimp on quality or gouge on price. While I remain wary of travel retail exclusives and tend to buy only a few well-known products at duty-free shops (Lagavulin 16 and Nikka Whisky from the Barrel are must-buys on European trips, especially with favorable exchange rates at the moment), there are diamonds in the rough out there.
For the most part, unfortunately, critics' reviews agree that Laphroaig QA Cask is not one of them. I'm ready to see for myself.
Appearance: It looks like a Laphroaig, that's about all I can say about it. It's a light straw or hay-like color, like most other Islay scotches. I couldn't tell it apart from Laphroaig or Ardbeg 10 in the glass.
Nose: Here's where QA starts to distinguish itself from its family. Floral peat, and relatively little smoke, characterize this gentle dram. There is not as much fruit sweetness either, but rather a distinct and powerful roasted nut smell (among the strongest nut notes I've gotten from any whisky): both unshelled peanuts and Brazil nuts. Lovers of Springbank or other mildly peated scotches should really enjoy this one.
Palate: Again, this is by far the nuttiest Laphroaig I've encountered. The palate is a bit light and thin (what do you expect at 40%?), with pleasant flavors of coffee, vanilla, and roasted nuts giving it an overall character of mild creaminess. I get very little smoke on the palate, so much so that I didn't even bother writing down peat or smoke in my notes -- a rarity for any Islay scotch. There also isn't either a strong honey sweetness or a citrus sweetness, which suggests to me that the QA barrels are not charred like bourbon barrels. Charring would bring out a lot of the wood sugars, and is part of the reason bourbon has that syrup-like sweetness that distinguishes it from scotch.
Finish: This finishes quickly for an Islay or a Laphroaig, with a pinch of smoke and sweetness, and then roasted coffee, light woody spice, and those nuts again. There's a bit too much lingering bitterness, which is the main flaw in the finish.
Value for Money and Final Impressions: It's fair to say that QA Cask is the most critically panned Laphroaig release in the market today. For some reason, people just do not like this stuff. However, I enjoyed it a lot! The strong coffee notes on the palate and finish highlight some of my favorite aspects of Islay peat, although I do miss the smoky, briney intensity that most people expect from Laphroaig. Indeed, it's the absence of that unvarnished, powerful peat punch that most people have criticized about QA Cask. That strikes me as a bit unfair -- if this scotch had a Campbeltown label or came from a new distillery, I suspect a lot of critics would be praising it as a well-balanced, lightly-peated scotch. It's also priced about the same as Laphroaig 10 or Quarter Cask, after adjusting for the higher volume of the travel retail bottle, which seems fair. It's better than other online reviews make it out to be.
Rating: B+