Laphroaig Cairdeas Feis Ile 2013

Thanks to my good friend Chris Lauriers – whisky ambassador for Belgium – I have the opportunity to try no less than 10 – ten! – Feis Ile bottlings from Laphroaig in a row from 2007 until 2016. This is going to be a trip to remember.

This is the 2013 release, the first not to be presented in the classic green tube. The color refers to the finish on port pipes. After 8 years in bourbon casks, this Laffie was finished in Port Wood for another 14 months.

While it can certainly be called sweet on the nose – that’s the port, of course – with all kinds of red fruit like cranberry and raspberry, it does where a beautiful coat of smoke and peat. Loads of ashes and wet earth, making it impossible to deny it’s origin. Even some burns cream. Quite medicinal, in fact.

Good body, sweet notes going hand in hand with the peat. Immediately a grand development of smoke. Initially sweet, it quickly turn umami on roast beef with a salty edge. Again quite medicinal. Powerful, sweet, salty, smoky… in one word delicious! Quite spicy too on pepper and salt, cloves and even some cocoa.

The finish is wonderfully long, dark and sweet, spicy, with the smoke omnipresent.

Laffie on port? It works!

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