Laphroaig 28 Year Old Single Malt Whisky (750mL)

Laphroaig 28 Year Old is the 2018 entry in Laphroaig's yearly limited edition series, and is one of the distillery's oldest releases yet. It's a carefully selected mixture of casks, bringing together quarter casks, ex-bourbon barrels and oloroso sherry butts. It's picked up a reputation as being the best yet in the series, combining the distillery's medicinal smoke character with the fruitiness that many of its older bottles show.

This particular release was drawn from a range of 27-year-old casks that were vatted together and finished in sherry casks for another year before bottling. The Spirits Business reports the initial blend included casks of various sizes, including some quarter casks.

Laphroaig 28 Year Old Tasting Notes:

Color: Antique brass

Aroma: Unsurprisingly, you can smell this one a mile away. Surprisingly, it’s herbs, not peat, that hits first. Thyme, mint, oregano, and cumin seed jockey for attention at the starting line, followed up by smoky notes of camphor, pine-smoked tea, herbal salve, and bandages. Burnt rib ends and barbecue bark make an appearance as well, plus a faint note of juicy grilled peach.

Palate: Rather sweet at first, with fruity, aldehydic green apple and almost white-grape like bits evolving into a plume of resinous, aromatic smoke. There’s wet sweater, lanolin, fino sherry, and almonds.

Finish: warming—you really feel it in your chest—yet somehow also mild and rounded, with a long, aromatic Vicks Vapo-Rub finish.