Laphroaig Cairdeas 2023 White Port and Madeira Casks 52.3%

Laphroaig Cairdeas 2023 White Port and Madeira Casks 52.3%

Official Tasting Notes

Colour - Soft burnished gold.

Nose - Cinnamon, freshly ground ginger, crisp green apple with notes of toasted peaches, charred orange peel, and caramelized sugar with a whisper of bonfire embers.

Palate - Honey sweetness paired with juicy citrus characters and delicate notes of hazelnut, tannic oak, dark chocolate and slightly bitter caramel leading to earthy iodine-rich smoke.

Finish - Sweet and smooth with a lingering earthy peat and creosote phenolic character. A slight sea-salt sensation to finish.

Maturation - Double matured with three quarters aged in Madeira casks and the final quarter aged in White Port casks.

Laphroaig is located on Islay’s south coast and was founded by farmers Donald and Alexander Johnston in 1815. Named after its position ‘broad hollow by the bay’ the distillery remained in family ownership for over a hundred and thirty years. Back in the early days word spread of this particularly delicious whisky with it’s soft, peaty water source and the farmers quickly realised distilling was a more lucrative proposition.
Laphroaig is now owned by Beam Suntory and is the largest seller of single malt whisky on Islay. The distillery’s production capacity is 3.3 million litres of alcohol and with 34 mashes per week it has been running at full capacity for a number of years. The whisky is know for its smoky style which is individual and unique. Being so close to the coast the the peat used to smoke the barley has a higher moss content which adds to its distinctive character. Interestingly a great series of bottling’s named The Ian Hunter Story have been introduced which pay homage to the last of the Johnston family to own Laphroaig. In 2022 book four of the five Ian Hunter Story series was released.