Laphroaig Cairdeas 200th Anniversary Edition Scotch

Celebrating their 200th Anniversary of producing award winning and world renowned whiskies the Laphroaig Distillery on the remote Scottish Isle of Islay has just released a special edition expression for the Feis Ile 2015, Cairdeas 200th Anniversary Edition which has been lovingly created by Master Distiller John Campbell in the same way that Laphroaig was produced 2 centuries ago.

Very illusive due to its very limited release Cairdeas 200th Anniversary Edition has been incredibly difficult to get hold of. It has been made from barley from their own floor Maltings unusually 'cold-smoke' peated. The resulting wash was distilled in the smallest of Laphroaigs stills and in August 2003 was transferred into 1st fill Bourbon barrels before being stored right by the sea in Warehouse No.1.

Medium to full in body and with a rich straw-gold appearance Cairdeas 200th Anniversary Edition gives off delightful and enticing aromas. Sweet malt, freshly popped corn, toffee apples and salted caramel. Peat is in the back notes, it is vegetal and medicinal, sugestive of iodine laced with vanilla and salty driftwood. It is undoubtedly of Laphroaigh geneology, but there is something lurking that tells you this is going to be delightfully a different whiskey experience.

With the addition of water, the vanilla and peat spring forth, it becomes more medicinal in its aroma, reminding one very much of an open jar of cough-candy.

Creamy and velvet soft, the taste is succulent and sweet, the peat is present but somehow it is being held in check. Fairground toffee apples, more popcorn, salted, sweet and burnt. A mellow nuttiness, sea salt and flint.

With water, the Laphroaig roots shine more brightly, it becomes more juicy and zesty with apples, oranges and lime. The peat is also more forward now, iodine, salt and seaweed combined with tangy lemon juice.

Malt and peat is there is abundance in the long finish, sweet with toffee coated apples. With water the finish is blessed with more of that delightful tang of lemon.