Laphroaig 18 Years Old old bottle 48% NV

Distillerie	Laphroaig
Embouteilleur	OB
Serie	Old Label
Mise en bouteille pour
Date de distillation	Not Specified
Date de mise en bouteille	Not Specified (lasercode
Pays	Écosse
Région	Islay
Age	18
Cask Type	Ex-Bourbon Casks
Numéro de fût	Bottle code L30257A
Alcohol percentage	48
Volume
État	dans son emballage d'origine
Étiquette	Parfait
Stock	0

Avis professionnels

Serge Valentin (87)

Colour: pale gold.
Nose: smoother than the HB, much more vanilled (first fill bourbon casks?) but also fruitier and rounder, with some pleasant coastal notes (sea air, iodine.) It’s also rather more medicinal than the HB, with hints of tincture of iodine, bandages and a little camphor. Oh, and whiffs of gentian. It’s still a gentle and rather shy Laphroaig so far, that is, let’s hope the palate will be bigger. (Note: opens up just a bit after… one hour! On more citrons and kumquats.)
Mouth: it IS bigger, starting on all things earthy (gentian spirit and liquorice wood – my taste), with quite a saltiness but less than in the HB. Lemon sprinkled oysters, peat, maybe a hint of coriander and even sorrel, and then a rather big oakiness – not plankish of course – that, once again, hints at some kind of new oak treatment, ‘though it’s no vanilla bomb at all. Anyway, it’s good! Faint nuttiness.
Finish: long, even more on liquorice wood. Lemon.
Comments: this is complicated. I think I liked the nose of the 15yo that this one is meant to replace a little better because of its beautiful fruity notes (if I remember well) and of its subtleness but this is bigger and more assertive on the palate indeed, even if probably a little less complex and more ‘modern’.

BOW (88.50)