Laphroaig Cairdeas 2016 - Review
Age: No age statement
Barrel type: Ex-Maker's Mark bourbon barrels, Madeira wine casks
Region: Islay
ABV: 51.6%
Price: $80
Additional details: non-chill filtered, natural color
I'm continuing to march through the Laphroaig Cairdeas line (on the lookout for the older bottles, which are much harder to find). Today's scotch is the 2016 Cairdeas release, Laphroaig's annual treat for the Friends of Laphroaig, the distillery fan club.
This year's rendition was aged in Madeira wine casks, an unusual touch. Madeira is, like the more commonly seen sherry and port, a fortified wine. It is made exclusively on the Madeira islands, part of Portugal. Unlike sherry and port, I've never had Madeira itself, so didn't come to this bottle with too much of a preconceived notion of what flavors to expect.
Appearance: Classic Laphroaig bottle and tin, utilitarian but instantly recognizable. 2016's Cairdeas features a red, verging on purple label and a crimson tin. The 2015 200th anniversary edition was green, befitting its place in the core of Laphroaig's flavor profile (green being the color of most other Laphroaig bottles as well), while this year's expression is a brown cask strength, Quarter Cask.
This is one of the more unique whiskies at first sight. It does not place on the typical pale yellow to dark brown spectrum of whiskies, which must be due to that Madeira finish. It is a tawny, almost rusty red colored whisky.
Nose: This scotch begins with a strong dose of Laphroaig smoke, rounded out and softened by some truly unusual scents like vegetable peppers, tomatoes (I swear, I got a hint of them!), and rose wine. There's a bit of ethanol or acetone at times, which may just be the higher proof, but also makes me suspect this is younger by a few years than Cairdeas 2015, which was a delight at roughly 12 years old.
Palate: The palate is shockingly nondescript on first impression. Perhaps I just can't pick out the subtle flavors in it, but it strikes me as a nondescript sweetness, perhaps watermelon, wine-like grape, and then an ashier rendition of the smoke on the nose. It improves after taking a fair amount of time to oxidize, as I did not like my first glass after uncorking the bottle. There are these unsweetened notes that are almost vegetal, and a little spicy, which is why I am tempted to analogize them to red, yellow, or orange bell peppers. That's not quite right, but that's the closest I've gotten so far to describing the flavor.
Finish: The finish is intriguing, a bit hot, but good: smoke, some of the same notes as the nose, tobacco, and coffee. I did not particularly like the first dram I had, but I enjoyed this more when revisiting it.
Value for Money and Final Impressions: I oscillate in my mind between rating this a B and a B-. To be clear, there is only one noticeable flaw with the bottle, a bit too much heat in all three phases, which I suspect betrays its youth. But, although not a flaw, the strange flavor profile has not been working all that well for me. I actually think a lot of people will enjoy this expression, as there is a mellow sweetness and surprising complexity once you try it a few times and keep finding unusual new flavors. To me, it cancels out a ton of the signature highlights of the Laphroaig experience, including the powerful smoke and brininess that are the distillery's signatures. Compared to the excellent 2015 in particular, which was exactly everything I love about Laphroaig, this one almost seems like the product of another distillery.
Rating: B-