Our remote Feis Ile 2025, today at Laphroaig and Port Ellen


May 27, 2025

Our remote Feis Ile 2025, today at Laphroaig
and Port Ellen

Because Tuesday is Laphroaig and Port Ellen day, believe it or not... It's worth remembering, by the way, that until around the late 1960s, Laphroaig was the only Islay whisky that was fairly widely available as a single malt.

Laphroaig 10 yo (43%, OB, ‘Single Islay Malt Scotch Whisky’, cork, 1l, +/-1990)

A pre-royal warrant 1l bottle, UK version, cardboard tube. Remember the Royal Warrant was granted in 1994. These bottles aren't rare, but since they're excellent, they're highly sought after (makes sense, doesn't it, S. ?) Colour: gold with an orange tinge (caramel). Nose: good grief, we’re off to a roaring start. New tyres, passion fruit, mangoes, almond milk and smoked oysters, all in flawless synchrony. Worth noting, a medicinal side much more restrained than usual, and a peat that's been beautifully 'digested'. Or 'transmuted', as was occasionally said. Mouth: this time, the peat arrives both bright and bold, the saltiness as well, and we move even further away from the overtly tropical style of the 1960s and 1970s. A faint Sauvignon Blanc edge, chalk, pink grapefruit and, this time again, a wee touch of mercurochrome mingled with seawater. Finish: rather long for 43% vol., downright salty, even to the point of playing with your lips, as in… a salty kiss. Ahem. Comments: still extremely, extremely grand. And it was a full litre. No wonder Prince Charles granted a Royal Warrant a few years later.
SGP:555 - 92 points.

Laphroaig 10 yo ‘Càirdeas Cask Favourites’ (52.4%, OB, 2024)

Apparently, it’s a mix of ex-PX and ‘Triple Wood’, which frankly sounds a little alarming. But it’s meant to celebrate 30 years of the F.O.L., and I really ought to go and pick up the miniatures waiting for me at the distillery—it’s been ten solid years since I last went, alas! Just a reminder: a proper sweet PX carries around 500g of sugar per litre of wine. Yes, really. Colour: deep gold. Nose: the casks are very present—ginger, curry, cinnamon, fir wood, raisins… But not to the point of making the nose unpleasant, not at all. With water: eucalyptus wood, thuja, pine, fir bud liqueur, chartreuse… You get the picture. Mouth: the casks speak loudly, it’s nearly sweet, very spicy, practically jammy. With water: much the same, almost like ras-el-hanout in a bottle. Also some fir honey. Finish: again, similar notes, with a few Laphroaig markers finally turning up—peat, seaweed, iodine… Comments: of course it was going to be hard to follow the old 10-year-old, but still, this is very, well, botoxed. Not bad, though… I much preferred the 2023 (WF 85).
SGP:456 - 79 points.

Laphroaig 10 yo 'Cask Strength Batch 17' (58.3%, OB, Nov 23)

Always ahead of the curve, S. Right. In any case, we’d quite liked Batch 16 (WF 88). Colour: gold. Nose: this one buries the Càirdeas straight off, it’s much cleaner, more focused, firmly on the distillery’s DNA—sea spray, surgical bandages, ointments, campfire smoke on the beach, and the like. With water: a few touches of fresh wood plank but it’s nothing, we’re not in a Swedish flat-pack emporium either. Mouth (neat): superb, flawless, don’t touch a thing. A bit on the brutal side perhaps, yet there’s a cracking acidity, loads of lemon, oysters, ashes, plaster… With water: and as always, it loves water, with blood oranges and even a sliver of underripe mango, which nicely links it to the glorious days of yore. Finish: long, lemony, smoky, peppery, with a lovely acidulous bitterness. Kirsch-soaked marzipan. Comments: a touch hot and maybe just a tad too oaky, but that’s the fate of many a modern dram. Twenty years in the cellar ought to sort it out.
SGP:557 - 87 points.

Laphroaig ‘Elements L 2.0’ (59.6%, OB, 2024)

A longer fermentation here, supposedly ‘up to 115 hours’. It’s only a NAS, but the price is steep. Colour: white wine. Nose: no, this is rather nice, more on farm cider, iodine tincture, oysters as ever, perhaps a hint of wasabi, plasticine, pine sap and a touch of turpentine. Fair enough, if it’s fermenting in Oregon pine, after 115 hours you’d expect to smell something. Just joking! With water: laundry detergent, new jumper, plaster, fresh plastic. Mouth (neat): fruitier on the palate than usual, mostly citrus. Throw in some limoncello, tinned gherkins and samphire. Lovely salinity. With water: plasticine again, but it pairs well with the seawater and lemon showing up here. Finish: long, with a more prominent peatiness emerging. Comments: no, I haven’t checked whether Laphroaig really use Oregon pine washbacks. Very charming Laphroaig, not too far off the 10 C/S.
SGP:656 - 87 points.

While we're on the subject of the young ones...

Laphroaig 10 yo 2013/2024 (61.9%, LMDW Artist#14, Rothes Glen, bourbon, cask #132162, 237 bottles)

Very pretty label, a bit Wilfredo Lam-esque. Frankly, if I were to start a whisky bottle collection anew, I’d go with the ‘artistic’ labels—none of those hideous crystal decanters in faux-rosewood or mahogany that still pop up here and there. Colour: white wine. Nose: now why do the indies manage their casks better? I ask you! Perfect young Laphroaig, full of chalk and seaweed, damp ashes, lime and fresh olive oil grissini. With water: iodine tincture, oysters, ashes, Muscadet. Mouth (neat): sheer power, ultra-lemony and crammed with chalk and mercurochrome. Surely it cures everything. With water: it softens, showing pistachio and marzipan. Mozart Kugeln. Finish: back to sourdough, ashes and all things smoky. Comments: racy. Exactly what one modestly expects from a young Laphroaig.
SGP:567 - 89 points.

Laphroaig 11 yo (53.8%, Dràm Mor, Fifth Anniversary, refill bourbon barrel, cask #26976, 300 bottles, 2024)

Ah, Ibiscos! And in theory, this profile should absolutely work… Colour: white wine. Nose: a slightly more fermentary version, yeasty, closer to the barley, but also more medicinal still—camphory, even a touch ‘kiln-esque’ (yes, yes) … I admit, I adore this, it smells exactly like ‘the distillery’. With water: fresh concrete, paint, brine and engine oil. Mouth (neat): there we go, it splits you cleanly in two, samurai-style (in the ways of Uma Thurman). Lime, chalk, ashes, sea water, shells, and basta cosi. With water: spot on. Finish: long, with just a hint more softness, with orgeat and lemony vanilla, smoked fish and fir ash. Comments: a little gem, better get it into the cellar quickly if there’s any left.
SGP:467 - 90 points.

To finish, let’s move on to a blatant attempted murder…

Laphroaig 8 yo 2015/2024 (66%, The Whisky Exchange, The Seasons, Winter, hogshead)

Of course we love The Whisky Exchange, and these labels are awesome, but between us, if they’re finding cherries, raspberries and blackberries in winter (as per the label), they’re absolute wizards. Short of blowing a fortune at Borough Market, that is. Colour: deep gold. Nose: there might be nougat, fudge and marzipan, but at this strength, honestly, nothing makes much sense. With water: fresh plywood, bitter almonds, sauna oil, maraschino, glue, cherry liqueur, and finally a bit of soil and peat. Phew. Mouth (neat): burns like young, undiluted Jamaican rum. Still a long week ahead… With water: now that’s better, a lovely texture, very oily, on toasted sesame, whelks, farmhouse bread, and buckets of ashes of every kind. Finish (with water): ashes, pickled gherkins, kirsch, sake, sea water, lemon. Comments: I don’t say this often, but honestly, don’t even bother tasting this one neat. Dilute it straight down by 30%. Two-thirds spirit, one-third water. You’re welcome.
SGP:457 - 86 points.

Right, let’s carry on with two Port Ellens. There have been a lot of new ‘old’ Port Ellens over the past three or four years, but now that the distillery has been rebuilt and is speaking again, it seems to me that there are hardly any left. Unless some are slipping under our radar, which is quite possible. So we’ll start with an older version we haven’t yet tasted, if that’s alright with you…

Port Ellen 1970/1986 (40%, Gordon & MacPhail for Meregali Import, Italy, Celtic label)

We already tasted a very superlative 1970/1987 from the same series (WF 94) some fifteen years ago (good heavens!) but never this 1986 edition. Don’t be afraid of the 40%, Port Ellen remains Port Ellen… Colour: pale gold. Nose: this is embarrassingly beautiful, immaculate, on tar and clams, then lemon juice and oysters. There’s nothing more to say, really, we may as well move on to the palate… Mouth: infinite, poetic, resinous, tarry, the kind of thing that could induce an aesthetic shock and instant hospitalisation. We’re approaching Stendhal syndrome here, I fear, as we’re somewhere between Botticelli and Caravaggio, had they been distillers instead of painters, that is. Incredible soft salinity, oils, paraffins, petrol, engine oil, tiny candied citrus fruits… and on and on and on. Finish: like a little comet with a very long tail, if you see what I mean. Comments: in a way, we’re glad this baby was bottled at 40% vol., because anything higher might have been too much. Sublime early vintages of Port Ellen following the previous reopening, some facets even remind me of the ‘Queen’s Visit’ version.
SGP:466 - 95 points.

Port Ellen 39 yo 1982/2022 (53.9%, Douglas Laing for DH Global Wine, China, Xtra Old Particular, The Black Series, refill butt, cask #DL16283, 120 bottles)

We’d previously tasted a sublimely magnificent sister cask (#DL17554) for Christmas 2023. Colour: mahogany. Nose: oh, oil paint, game, fresh coal tar, strawberry eau-de-vie, myrtle and chestnut liqueurs, figs smoked over pinewood, pipe tobacco, you name it, it’s here, and better. With water: smells like an old hearth, plus truffled chicken stock and old Armagnac. Mouth (neat): the finest sulphury style imaginable in a whisky, a bit like some venerable Mortlachs (you’re right, some young ones too). In short, it’s the opposite of a flaw in this context. The rest splits itself between black pepper, Scandinavian fir tar liqueur, bitter oranges and cigar tobacco. With water: a shift in direction, as citrus arrives, then all things medicinal, cough syrup, liquorice and tar, mentholated and camphory notes, followed by dates; mustn’t forget the dates. Finish: very long, with coffee, ashes, marrons glacés, and the curious return of oil paint, dark chocolate and truffle. Comments: what can I even say!
SGP:566 - 93 points.

(Merci to Fuji, KC, Thierry and The Golden Promise)

Check the index of all Laphroaig we've tasted so far

Check the index of all Port Ellen we've tasted so far