A few Laphroaigs running wild


November 5, 2026

A few Laphroaigs running wild

It had been quite a while since we last had some Laphroaig, and it was high time we put that right, as there are some rather exciting new arrivals. We’ll start with a little independent 10-year-old…

(With Iain Henderson, 2002, WF Archive. Iain is not the bloke on the right who's looking dazed, he's the other one.)

Laphroaig 10 yo (46%, Cadenhead, Original Collection, bourbon barrel, 2026)

A bottling from this summer, sporting the Original Collection’s new livery. Admittedly, the previous grey-green didn’t come across terribly well… on screen, while the liquids were often pretty perfect. Colour: pale white wine. Nose: so unmistakably Laphroaig! Sodden ashes, as if someone had put out the fireplace with seawater, then bandages, antiseptic, creosote, seaweed, beach sand, oysters, virgin wool, gherkins… Mouth: even more Laphroaig, really powerful, with grapefruit, smoked water (it does exist!) and seawater. Then cough syrup and eucalyptus lozenges. The peat certainly hasn’t gone missing. Finish: long, a little austere, but that’s part of this distillate’s charm. Seawater in the aftertaste, almost as if we’d swallowed a mouthful of the ocean without noticing. Comments: we almost get the impression that this independent baby is more ‘Laphroaig’ than the officials.
SGP: 367 - 87 points.

Laphroaig 15 yo (16%, OB, +/-2026)

Sorry, we still haven’t got a current 10-year-old. We haven’t tasted it for more than five years, which is a proper scandal, I’ll grant you. Colour: white wine. Nose: incredible, this is the same whisky as the Cadenhead, with just a whisker more oak, and barely that. Quite incredible, really. Mouth: same feeling, this is extremely close, while being stylistically rather far removed from the lovely official 15-year-old ‘200th Anniversary’ from ten years ago, the last official 15 we tasted. Finish: long, with a tiny touch of citrus, otherwise iodine, ashes, pepper and salt. Comments: very good, of course. I confess we’ve rather done the bare minimum here, but you understand, it was so close to the Cadenhead…
SGP: 467 - 87 points.

Well, well, the famous Leapfrogs are back…

Leapfrog 14 yo 2011/2026 (55.3%, Murray McDavid, Benchmark, bourbon barrel, cask #875289, 223 bottles)

We remember the first Leapfrogs causing quite a stir in our little whisky world more than twenty years ago, as the distillery’s owners considered the name too close to the official one, which led to a court case. Poor frog! Although, if memory serves, it all ended well… Colour: white wine. Nose: predictably, we’re staying very close. Still that dry peat, mingling with ashes, seawater, antiseptic, soot and a mixture of camphor and eucalyptus. With water: it softens a little, bringing almond liqueur and green olive tapenade. Mouth (neat): very close again, ashes, peat, lemon zest, but more salted liquorice here too. With water: excellent now, utterly Laphroaig. Finish: long, very peaty, packed with ashes, brine and preserved lemons. Comments: we do love that salted liquorice.
SGP: 467 - 88 points.

Come on, let’s take advantage of another Leapfrog and put together a lovely little verticale of much older Laphroaigs… Early 1990s, for example, although we’ll leave aside all those ‘Secret Islay’ bottlings from these vintages that are actually Laphroaig. Next time.

Leapfrog 33 yo 1992/2026 (50.3%, Murray McDavid, Mission, bourbon barrel, Islay Exclusive, 243 bottles)

Colour: pale gold. Nose: very lovely, more delicate and softened, but never woody, with a sort of smoked vanilla cream, equally smoky vanilla fudge, and a floral procession leading towards compost and samphire. With water: bandages and ashes, could anything be more ‘Laphroaig’? Touches of orange fruit paste. Mouth (neat): really very good, very smoky, very ‘young’ in spirit, without those tropical extravaganzas we sometimes find in other old Laphroaigs. No complaints, although there is a little pink grapefruit. With water: beautifully balanced above all, never tired, quite the opposite. As if someone had been smoking citrus fruit over peat… Finish: fairly long, and fairly gentle too. Bitter almonds and shellfish, our friends the whelks, naturally, then seawater that goes on, and on, and on... Comments: we’re moving up, although I don’t find the gap in quality over the excellent 14-year-old all that wide. Excellent, naturally.
SGP: 556 - 89 points.

We did say a verticale, didn’t we?

Laphroaig 35 yo ‘Dugald Johnson’ (43.8%, OB, Strong Characters, American oak, 2026)

Lovely label, certainly. We rather like that ‘American oak’ mention, it takes me back to my first visit, when Iain Henderson was manager. When you asked him what types of casks they used, he would reply, ‘American or European’. And that was that. Dugald Johnson, meanwhile, was the son of one of the founders. Colour: gold. Nose: there we are, a more ‘antique’ Laphroaig, with furniture polish, mango, quince jelly and angelica, but also peat ash that remains firmly in place, alongside that typically coastal and medicinal character. And a drop of absinthe. The real stuff, from the Val de Travers. Mouth: magnificent, reminding me of the old 30-year-old that you could drink by the hearty swig. Really. Mango, light toffee, gentle brines, little oysters, iodine… This really bridges the legendary 10-year-olds of the 1960s and contemporary Laphroaig. By contemporary we mean, say, post-1990, you understand. Finish: not enormous, but very beautiful, superbly saline, as if we had an entire seafood platter in our glass. Complete with lemon and kelp. Comments: wonderful, this non-vintage 35-year-old. Quite a little affectation in itself, incidentally… Anyway, I clearly prefer it to the admittedly very lovely 33 yo ‘Donald Johnston’ from the same family series (WF 89).
SGP: 665 - 92 points.

What shall we do? We have the official 38 and 39-year-olds on the table, and a stronger 36-year-old from Signatory. I know we said ‘a verticale’, but let’s bow to organisational contingencies (what?) and start with the officials.

Laphroaig 38 yo (41.3%, OB, Archive Collection, bourbon & 2nd fill oloroso sherry, 400 bottles, 2025)

In theory, we’re somewhere around the mid-1980s. I’d put my money on 1987, as there was rather a lot of it about. Colour: amber. Nose: sherry and ashes, dunnage warehouses, then a simple but dazzling combination of honey-like broom flowers, chocolate, camphor and mango. If the palate follows suit, we’ll be up at the same lofty altitude as the 35-year-old. Mouth: well, yes. Certainly drier, but if you enjoy tobacco, chocolate and coffee, and sherry of course, you can only bow in appreciation. Beautiful, rather subtle bitters. Finish: surprisingly long, with orange marmalade, mint and eucalyptus. We’re flying very high indeed. Comments: I was a little apprehensive about the low strength, which might have suggested a certain, shall we say, flatness on the palate, but nothing of the sort occurred.
SGP: 565 - 92 points.

Laphroaig 39 yo ‘Rope by Laura Carlin’ (42.4%, OB, The Wall Collection, oloroso hogshead & PX finish, 200 bottles, 2025)

The label, or rather the labels, are very beautiful, and Laura Carlin is clearly very talented. Wikipedia (bless ‘em) tells us she has worked for, no less, Vogue, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The Sunday Telegraph and The Independent. Still, it’s a PX finish. Colour: red amber. Nose: the sweet wine makes itself known, although it’s not unpleasant at all, it’s simply that Laphroaig’s usual markers have been softened a little. For instance, there’s a lot of rather lovely honey, which is quite unusual in Laphroaig, even at this venerable age. Let’s say chestnut honey, delicately smoked over wood, and ultimately something of an old cognac on the nose. Mouth: much the same feeling, especially alongside the wonderful 38-year-old, which was much purer and closer to the ‘phroaig spirit. Still very good, having said that. Notes of coffee and Cointreau. Finish: not very long, but hardly fleeting either. Currants, coffee, forest honey. Comments: viewed as an old whisky, this is magnificent. Viewed through a Laphroaig lover’s spectacles, perhaps a little less so. And the 35 and 38 have rather done for it, we have to admit. Blasted verticales!
SGP: 654 - 88 points.

And here’s today’s last one, from Signatory. We’ll have plenty more Laphroaig before the festive season, rest assured. Not that I could sense you worrying…

Laphroaig 36 yo 1989/2026 (58%, Signatory Vintage, Cask Strength Collection, for LMDW Anthologie, hogshead, cask #9398, 93 bottles)

A simple hogshead, the equivalent of a high-quality blank canvas for a talented painter. All right, take that comparison for what it’s worth. Anyway, let it be said that Signatory’s 1966 and 1967 Laphroaigs rank among the greatest malt whiskies in the world, ever. Colour: gold. Nose: this radiates olive oil from fifteen metres away. Green olives too, just like that. Then a little new rubber and kelp drying on the beach. Incredible. With water: more classical, but none of that has entirely disappeared. Certainly not those wonderful olives. Mouth (neat): ashes steeped in a mixture of lemon juice and seawater. I’ll keep it brief. With water: sublime mangoes and passion fruit, with a tiny soapy touch that’s magnificent in this context, almond soap that leaves your skin softer, or so they say in he adverts. Finish: long, sharp, saline, with lemon, seawater and drum roll please, olives! Did someone tip a bottle of Hampden into the cask by mistake? Comments: selling such splendour when there are only a handful of bottles (93!) ought to be forbidden, it’s almost torture. You’ll tell me our Alsatian neighbours at Bugatti do much the same. Scores almost 93/100, but out of respect for the official 35 and 38, and those 210 years of history… and as the SGP is positively diabolical…
SGP: 666 - 92 points.

Check the index of all Laphroaig we've tasted