Laphroaig Williamson 8 Year Old 41.6%

This is lovely dram with an unknown history. We are all about transparency even when the story behind the whisky is pretty unclear!

At Uncharted Whisky we do a lot of cask tasting, re-racking, finishing, and blending casks together to create whiskies we are proud to sell. Sometimes, we get a chance to pick up something weird that we don’t have to do much to at all. That’s what happened here. 

We were offered a really small amount of this Islay liquid- the out-turn was 150 bottles plus a few we opened for sampling at the Islay festival Feis Ile. However, there was very little information available about it. There wasn’t much of it, it’s ABV was low (making it unsuitable for further maturation), and there was no record of what different wood types had been used for maturation. On sampling, there is a strong sherry influence so it is likely that both ex-bourbon and sherry casks were used for maturation but we had to make our decision purely on the quality of the dram in glass. On tasting it, we immediately knew we were going to bottle it. Rich sherry influence layered over the classic Laphroaig-esque character at an absolutely quaffable ABV. 

Rich coal skuttle aromas, a seaside swish, and cooked peaches underneath- it was hard to say no. Sadly, there’s not much of it so these 150 bottles won’t last long.