After a long day of treasure hunting during my trip to London I finally stumbled upon the Holy Grail. Well, maybe not the Holy Grail, but that's how it felt to me, a whisky-lover infatuated with Islay whiskies.
At first I had tried the count-on-your-dumb-luck method, basically just walking around hoping to stumble on a shop that sells fine whisky. I did stumble upon a few promising looking establishments, but my precious bottle of 15 year old Laphroaig was nowhere to be found. As dumb luck didn't work this time, I had to rely on my mouth; I started asking around.
During the course of asking around, I discovered that "liquor store" is apparently a foreign expression in England, not English at all, and that it was a "spirits store" I was looking for. Finally, a bartender directed me to a store specialised in whisky and cigars.
And there it was, on the top shelf of the cigar smelling, classically furnished "spirits store" - my Holy Grail, a bottle of 15 year old Laphroaig. It cost me about £45 to get it down from there - no student discounts, sorry. The "You are clearly a man of good taste, sir!" from the salesman did help alleviate the pain a little though.
Laphroaig is produced on Islay - a famous whisky producing island off the west coast of Scotland. The water for the whisky is drawn from Loch Kilbride, which gets it's water from streams of water sifted through the peaty ground, trickling towards the loch along the hard ground rock.
The barley is sifted through this water prior to the malting process - drying over a peat fire, the malts acquire flavours that carry on to the finished product - which will be ready for bottling 15 long years later.
The Islay peat is formed from heather and mosses mostly - no forests on the island, so no decaying trees to make up the peat. The Islay peat is unique in that way. The saltiness, and the sea-breeze feel of many of the Islay malts comes from seaweed, which is among the plant matter that makes up the Islay peat - seaweed gets thrown inland during storms.
The carefully selected water, barley and peat are the ingredients that give Laphroaig it's complex character. And of course we should not forget the maturation process, the aging in old casks, during which the originally clear liquid gets it's deep golden colour that we associate with whisky. For Laphroaig, the cask of choice is ex-bourbon cask.
As you might have gathered from my introduction, the 15 year old Laphroaig (unlike it's younger brother) is a rare bottle - not that much of it is produced. The taste is more refined when compared to the 10 y.o., perfected in the additional 5 years of maturation. It's a treasure to be hoarded and cherished on rare occasions, should you get your hands on it.
...Rare occasions such as writing an Epinion on it. *sigh*
On to the tasting
Always, when tasting good whisky, use a thin glass - you want the heat to seep through the glass from your hands. Use a tulip glass, or a brandy glass for optimal tasting. As the whisky is at it's best when warm, you may even use a candle to warm the glass, though for this particular whisky, I've found that there is such a thing as too warm - no candle for the 15 yo, as it acquires an unwelcome sharpness if too warm. About body temperature, maybe slightly cooler is fine.
What about the ice cubes then? If that thought popped into your head, drop and give me 50! If you said it out aloud, you should have your tongue amputated! Ice and whisky should not be mixed, even in thoughts. Having ice with whisky as fine as the one I'm tasting right now is... I can't find the words to sufficiently express my disdain. Ice kills all taste, and makes all whisky taste the same - awful.
Before tasting, it is recommended that you add a drop of soft water - not to dilute the whisky, but to bring out all the flavour. Just a drop is enough.
So now that we've got that cleared, let's take a sniff...
Aroma
Straight: Smoky, but slightly less so than the 10 year old, a peaty, pleasantly toasted aroma. Much smoother then the younger version, not aggressive at all. Hints of sweetness.
A Drop of water added: The same aromas are still present, the toastiness is stronger, very pleasant and inviting. I could sit here enjoying the aroma all night...
Flavour
Rich complex flavour, initially presenting various sweet tones. Smokey almond toast, hint of oak, full, balanced, distinctly peaty. The medicinal taste of the 10 year old is much fainter here, which makes the 15 year old accessible to a wider range of palates. Extremely long lingering finish, leaves a warm feel to your mouth all the way to your throat. The smoke will remain in your nose for an intoxicatingly pleasant effect.
I would describe the taste as a full course - appetising to the nose, revealing more of itself in the mouth, all the way through the tasting, before lingering off to make a wonderful warm dessert.
Conclusion
My favourite whisky of all time. Strong, challenging, yet pleasant and smooth. A real treat. I have also had a chance to taste the 30 year old Laphroaig (paid eight pounds for a measly little shot!), and I have to say that the 15 year old is much better. 30 years in a cask seems to be a bit too much for Laphroaig - sure, it gets even smoother, but it looses character, and gains a stronger taste from the wood that I didn't appreciate that much. The 15 year old takes the cake in my book - a truly elegant specimen!
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