Review #49: Laphroaig Triple Wood
Laphroaig was my gateway whisky – and also the way I discovered that I unequivocably love peat. We have been nursing this bottle steadily and the other night, we finally laid the bottle to rest.
The Triple Wood is a NAS that was originally released for the duty-free market, and comprises whisky from ex-bourbon, a quarter cask, and European sherry oak butts. It’s not a married whisky, but instead a whisky that travels from ex-bourbon to quarter cask then to sherry butts. So… essentially they took their Quarter Cask (which provides more surface area for faster ageing) release and finished it in sherry. That may not sound particularly exciting, but it’s a very solid dram, particularly for the price!
Laphroaig Triple Wood
- Score - 7.5/107.5/10
Overall
Tasting Notes
Nose: What a great nose. A very full-bodied Laphroaig. Plum covered adhesives, surprising amount of sweetness comapred to the 10, BBQ sauce, wet rocks, coal pit, burning campfire. Roasted brown cracker. Much less iodine, salt, and herbal peat qualities than the 10-year.
Palate: Some malty sweetness, baked sweet bread, toffee pudding, hotter and richer than the 10 year. Burnt toast, plums, hint of pine cone, Chinese medicinal tea.
Finish: So very long. Smoked dark cherries and more smokey ash.
Summary
Overall: Excellent. One of us thought over time, that it tasted better – the other disagreed (and remembered it tasting better). But we both agreed on prefering this to the 10-year, which is more one-note, and because this is richer. The influence of the three wood types come together for a great dram, where the peat serves to highlight some sweet notes.
TLDR: Peat and Sweet.
Bought for: $55/bottle at Total Wine
Quick overview of our scoring system
Additional Information
- Mashbill: 100% malted barley
- ABV: 48%
- No Age Statement (NAS)
- Casks: Ex-bourbon, quarter cask, and European sherry oak butts
- Gold at San Francisco World Spirits 2013
About
- Read our review of the Laphroaig distillery (an excellent place to visit, especially because you get to bottle some exclusive single casks that you would never be able to buy!)
- Their whisky is almost all aged partially in bourbon casks – and specifically casks from Maker’s Mark
- Had an infamous legal dispute with Lagavulin when their water was diverted the Kilbride dam (the peated water of the dam was suspected to be behind the brand’s success)
- Was sold to America during the Prohibition because Ian Hunter was able to successfully convince the government that the “iodine character” of the whisky was a sign of its medicinal properties
- Famously has a Friends of Laphroaig program in which a bottle of Laphroaig gives you a square foot of land on their distillery that you can then claim and visit when you go to the distillery