A few Laphroaigs on this penultimate day of the year


December 30, 2025

A few Laphroaigs on this penultimate day of the year

In response to Angus’s brilliant post on 27 December. Mind you, no Williamsons or other ‘Secret Islays’ today. We’ll start with the new official 12-year-old, and then see where the winds of our reasoning take us…

The working kiln, hell or heaven? (WF Archive, 2015)

Laphroaig 12 yo (46%, OB, American oak barrels, travel retail, 2025)

This baby is supposed to be, I quote, the ‘well-travelled one’ from the famed distillery, is that to say they’ve sent these casks off on ships to sail the seven seas, or something of the sort? Colour: white wine. Nose: well, there’s what the colour wouldn’t have led us to suspect: notes of fresh wood, especially ginger, and faint touches of coconut, but the rest keeps the Laphroaig DNA intact, that camphory, peaty side, with overripe apple, but then there’s the arrival of paprika and that’s clearly the cask. Smoked paprika, if you please (indeed, it does exist) … Mouth: the smoke in its rawest, most elemental state, austere, close to charcoal, then smoked paprika again, ripe apple, and a rather surprising touch of pineapple, which one knows can come from the casks. What’s really toned down compared to more classic Laphroaigs, like the ‘regular’ 10 or the CS, are the coastal and medicinal elements, which seem to have been somewhat erased. But it’s still very good. Finish: fairly long, with unexpected notes of exotic fruit liqueurs and syrups. Comments: it’s fairly simple but I find it good, different, surprising. Of course, the 46% is most welcome.
SGP:645 - 85 points.

Leapfrog 13 yo 2011/2025 (54.4%, Murray McDavid, Benchmark, bourbon barrels, casks #85290+91+92, 687 bottles)

I know, it’s a kind of secret Laphroaig, but let’s be honest, Leapfrog is Laphroaig, and the name has even become cult since its first edition back in the early 2000s and the epic legal battle that came with it, if I remember well. Colour: pale white wine. Nose: completely offbeat, starting on an old alcohol burner, then cooked asparagus, pizza dough, grilled aubergines, charcoal, and then more and more maritime elements—seaweed, oysters, clams, periwinkles (though perhaps not the periwinkles). Finally, fresh virgin wool, the whole thing becoming rather magnificent and very ‘Islay’. With water: it’s as if we’ve shoved our head inside an old fireplace—thankfully extinguished. Some paint as well. Mouth (neat): firmly in official 10yo CS territory, which is of course very good news. Very taut, salty, lemony and coastal, with that classic iodine tincture and mercurochrome note fully present. With water: the lemon makes a discreet appearance, the rest is textbook stuff: kippers, lemon, ashes and so on. Finish: same story. Comments: we really enjoy this very rustic profile; you’re truly transported to the island. Right, you may now take your head out of the fireplace…
SGP:357 - 88 points.

Laphroaig 11 yo 2014/2025 (57.5%, The Single Malts of Scotland for LMDW Itinéraires, refill hogshead, cask #1414000224, 359 bottles)

Colour: white wine. Nose: rather hot, with a faint touch of cologne at first, a little hairspray too, then it leans back into the familiar Laphroaig aromas, seaweed and bandages, plus banana and vanilla, and of course, mercurochrome. Nothing to complain about here. With water: it refines, becomes almost narrow, but in the best possible way—Bauhaus-style, as we like to say. Mouth (neat): powerful, very close to the Leapfrog, although it opens right away on lemons and grapefruits, whether fresh or in liqueur form, then rolls out those salty, medicinal and maritime notes. Very classic. With water: once again it narrows, back to citrus and passion fruit. You might even think of a dry white Jurançon, so manseng. Excellent. Finish: long, pure, fruity. Comments: to tell the truth, we tasted this one with caviar last night, and that worked a treat.
SGP:657 - 89 points.

Laphroaig 13 yo 2011/2025 (57.4%, Hogshead Imports, Exclusive Release, refill barrel, 192 bottles)

Colour: white wine. Nose: disarmingly simple, on damp earth, wet ashes, mercurochrome, lime, smoked salmon, brine and white spirit. With water: lamp oil and a very young, almost clear Hampden-like Jamaican rum side. Mouth (neat): absolutely massive, brutal, ultra-smoky and hyper-salty. I don’t think one should dig too deep here without water. Hints of fresh pear eau-de-vie from the heart of the middle cut. With water: the Jamaican side returns and it works a treat. Heaps of ashes, tar, and probably a few slightly ‘chemical’ compounds (aren’t they all?) but ones we always love. Finish: very long, austere, very salty and still chock-full of ashes. Comments: now this one was extreme!
SGP:368 - 89 points.

How about we compare it with an older one of pretty similar age?

Laphroaig 19 yo 1987/2006 (52.2%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #29.54, ‘Tulips in a coal cellar’)

Colour: white wine. Nose: you can tell it’s an older style, with lavender sweets, geraniums, nail varnish, cough syrup, dried fish… Let’s just say it’s ‘dirtier’, more ‘funky’, and less ‘clean line’ than the more modern versions we’ve just tasted. With water: a kiln-like note. That’s lovely… and a brand-new oversized woolly jumper. Mouth (neat): ah, this is excellent! Salty and peppery tension, lots of ashes, sardines, olives, samphire… With water: same again. A little clay, white pepper, and a faint hint of salted butter caramel. Finish: long, returning to its native ashes (what?), with a faint note of salty liquorice in the aftertaste. Comments: very different from the TSMOS/LMDW, yet on exactly the same level, to within a tenth of a point. Not that we do tenths of points, mind you…
SGP:556 - 89 points.

Let’s move on to some older expressions, starting with an official bottling…

Laphroaig 33 yo ‘Donald Johnston’ (43.8%, OB, Strong Characters, sherry finish, 2024)

Wonderful early Soviet-style back label. Now giving a 33-year-old baby a finishing feels about as likely as spray-painting a Turner, but I’m sure they had their reasons. By the way, this Mr Donald Johnston (1810–1847), despite a very short life, was the founder of Laphroaig, along with his brother. Colour: gold. Nose: it’s gentle, it whispers, it chants, and it’s full of all sorts of seashells, rounded out with sauna oil and orgeat syrup, then old-fashioned embrocations and bygone medicinal syrups. Mouth: the light finishing was probably a clever move, beyond some slightly over-steeped teas and tisanes, there’s peach and passion fruit, then a faint touch of cigarette ash. Finish: not very long but the tannins are clearly there, though the structure has remained firm. Comments: a delicate and slightly fragile old thing, but entirely charming, like an old musical instrument. A clavichord?
SGP:455 - 89 points.

I must confess, we are going round in circles a bit with these scores… but hey, at least we’re consistent…

Laphroaig 31 yo 1993/2025 (42.4%, C. Dully Selection, hogshead, cask #6793, 197 bottles)

Colour: gold. Nose: here we are, back in the incredibly well-balanced style of the official 30-year-old, for instance, with that mosaic of little things that come together: ashes, cigarettes, peaches, grapefruit, pink banana, charcoal, anchovy, mint, camphor, eucalyptus, bandages, oysters, fresh mastic, paint, almond oil, mango… If all that holds together on the palate, we’re onto a proper little winner… Mouth: oh yes, perfect, simply perfect. Wet ashes with lemon, pink and grey pepper, pink grapefruit, soft green olives, oysters, seawater, camphor syrup, menthol and tobacco, passion fruit, lime… A proper family daiquiri, this. Finish: curiously long, very balanced, fresh and almost refreshing, though you’re left with salty ashes on the tongue right at the end. Comments: what more is there to say, other than that it’s dangerously drinkable—and don’t they make this in magnums?
SGP:566 - 91 points.

Laphroaig 34 yo 1991/2025 (48.3%, WhiskyLand, Decadent Drinks, refill hogshead, 182 bottles)

Very fine label, very Dada—fans of Picabia should love it. And what’s more, it’s splendidly anti-AI-slop, a cause we’ll surely need to champion in the coming years if we go by some of today’s labels, the kind that could bring a tear to a brick that just won the lottery. And here we have an old Laphroaig selected by Laphroaig fans… Colour: straw. Nose: same territory as the previous one, though a little drier. A touch more medicinal and mineral, and a touch less fruity in return. Oh, and that whiff of fresh paint, Picabia would have approved of that as well. Mouth: I do apologise for not being able to redevelop entirely new comments here, but we’re so close to the last one that if you accidentally swapped the glasses around on the table, you’d no longer know which was which. Are you with me? Magnificent Laphroaig in any case, with perhaps a slightly more resinous streak. Finish: same again. Magnificent salty finale. That salinity is quite remarkable, very manzanilla-like. Comments: once again, one of those situations where we’d need a magnum of each to even try to tell them apart. What beasts!
SGP:566 - 91 points.

Time for the final curtain, with one last dram at a slightly higher strength…

Laphroaig 32 yo 1992/2024 (52.7%, Quaich Bar, Singapore Exclusive, The Islay Giants, cask #3845, 283 bottles)

Colour: white wine. Nose: fresher, more ‘Caol Ila’ if you see what I mean, with notes of crab meat with citrus, sushi, green apple, dill, and even horseradish. Astonishing freshness at this age. With water: gorgeous tar and fresh rubber joining the ensemble. Mouth (neat): ultra-precise, almost binary—bitter almond and smoke with lemon zest. Water should, again, work wonders. With water: we’re into lapsang souchong and miso soup. Some of the incisive freshness of the last two or three is a bit lost, but we’re still clearly at the top end of the basket. Finish: long, dry, salty and ashy. Comments: magnificent, one for serving with shellfish, I’d say.
SGP:466 - 90 points.

Check the index of all Laphroaig we've tasted