Laphroaig 1996 Adelphi Review

Hi everyone,

Many thanks go to Lucy of Adelphi for this wonderful sample of older Laphroaig.

 

Laphroaig 1996 Adelphi 57.1%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: The twenty years have really done a good job of toning down the smoke and bringing out complexity but not the usual tropical old Laph. Instead there's wet leather, slightly rotten oranges (in a good way), campfire ash, cordite/gun smoke, still some lemon and lime citrus lurking back there too. More rotting seashore notes after a bit. Oh and stale cigarette smoke (which should never be a good thing but somehow is here!). Really interesting and complex nose.

Taste: Soft start with orange, then lemon and lime, very soft but building up and up with these very maritime notes of seaweed, rotting seashore, the bay at Laphroaig at low tide, wet leather, campfire smoke, a confusing but delicious combination of wet leather and petrol, then more oily into the finish.

Finish: Long length. You'll have to swallow a couple of times (C'mon guys, no jokes please) as it suddenly gets very oily and viscous. Powerful smoke here with big mineral notes. Firm, strong finish.

Bottled 2017 at 20yo. A pretty stunning modern Laphroaig. It's Adelphi so it’s going to be expensive but it’s a good'n. Some great aspects of old Caol Ila, Bowmore and Lagavulin here too. If I could bend the rules, I’d give it 88.5.

88/100

Distillery:

Average Score: 81.7

Distillery Ranking: 6th/ 62 places

Up/Down: No movement

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #609

Whisky Network Review #721

Network Average: 74.9

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

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

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

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