Laphroaig 1996 Masterpieces Review: TWE Show Report

...And we’re onto no.2. 

This next one is special and a bit hyped. Why? Because there’s this guy called Sukhinder Singh and he started The Whisky Exchange. He selects one barrel every year to bottle under his own label; Masterpieces. He says that these are some of the best whiskies he has ever tried and that really means something from a guy who’s tasted thousands of whiskies.

This year he selected a 20 year old Laphroaig from a PX Sherry butt. Not a finish, full term. Just from the specs it sounds pretty goddamn good.

Laphroaig 1996 Masterpieces 50.6%

Colour: Dark Amber

Body: Medium

Nose: Very little smoke from this and actually (don’t kill me) it reminds me of Ben Bracken 22yo from Lidl’s, but at cask strength. Cherry, orange, some mineral notes, some fresh rubber.

Taste: Intense sweetness, much more smoke than the nose, cherry, stewed fruit, then more smoke comes through.

Finish: Long length. Very sweet with stewed cherry.

84/100

This could have been incredible, but I think it went too far. The Laphroaig has been tamed by this monster of a Sherry cask.

Oh well, at least it saves me from having to buy a bottle at £200.

There is a long list of whiskies I should have spent more time with maybe, this is one of them. I'm sure a full bottle would have developed beautifully and the whiskybase.com score is rather high (91.45).

UPDATE: After I put this up on Reddit, Ben's Whisky Reviews reviewed it too and his views match mine on this one. So it isn't just me! Plenty of people disagree with us though and spent their £200 on this (It's all sold out).

Review #185

Network Average: 74.4

Best Score: 91

Worst Score: 44

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent