Laphroaig 18 Years Old old bottle 48% NV

Professional reviews

Serge Valentin (87)

Colour: pale gold.
Nose: smoother than the HB, much more vanilled (first fill bourbon casks?) but also fruitier and rounder, with some pleasant coastal notes (sea air, iodine.) It’s also rather more medicinal than the HB, with hints of tincture of iodine, bandages and a little camphor. Oh, and whiffs of gentian. It’s still a gentle and rather shy Laphroaig so far, that is, let’s hope the palate will be bigger. (Note: opens up just a bit after… one hour! On more citrons and kumquats.)
Mouth: it IS bigger, starting on all things earthy (gentian spirit and liquorice wood – my taste), with quite a saltiness but less than in the HB. Lemon sprinkled oysters, peat, maybe a hint of coriander and even sorrel, and then a rather big oakiness – not plankish of course – that, once again, hints at some kind of new oak treatment, ‘though it’s no vanilla bomb at all. Anyway, it’s good! Faint nuttiness.
Finish: long, even more on liquorice wood. Lemon.
Comments: this is complicated. I think I liked the nose of the 15yo that this one is meant to replace a little better because of its beautiful fruity notes (if I remember well) and of its subtleness but this is bigger and more assertive on the palate indeed, even if probably a little less complex and more ‘modern’.

BOW (88.50)