Another Feis Ile bottling. One I must I admit I had already forgotten about. I’m pulling from a backlog of tasting notes since I’ve not been tasting much the last few months. It’s only very occasionally that I feel my nose is up to scratch (pun intended) and most of the time it’s not.

Anyway, I already got skeptical when I saw the term ‘triple wood’. That generally veers in two different directions: One is that they’ve used some sort of wine casks in the mix, next to bourbon and sherry. The other is that they’ve started calling things ‘wood’ when it’s just more of the same.

In this case they’ve used ex-bourbon, quarter casks and oloroso sherry casks. I would assume the quarter casks are also made of ex bourbon American oak, but that information is not given.

With this being released in a batch of 36000 bottles, it is not very surprising that the bottles are still available at somewhat decent prices, currently beginning at £ 120. Let’s see if it is worth the price tag!

Sniff:
Lots of fresh sherry and fruit. Quite a lot of fruit juices on the nose. Band aids, soot, bonfire embers, lots of smoky notes. Quite medicinal too with brine and iodine. It’s pretty sweet with peaches, apricots and dates.

Sip:
The palate is obviously sharp, but continues the sherry, fruit and iodine notes from the nose. More band aids, more brine, more soot. The greasy soot on the inside of a chimney. Not much wood, but a lot of cask influence.

Swallow:
The finish mellows very, very quickly. Quite short with mostly sweetness and a bit of smoke lingering. A bit of fruitiness but mostly the sweetness of dates that remains.

What this whisky does very well is being Laphroaig. The medicinal and briny notes are all here and that is a very good thing. It’d been a while since I had something like this. On the other hand, the finish is rather short, but that’s the biggest complaint.

I think it could have been a tad more complex and I think they could’ve skipped the quarter cask. Enforcing oak on a whisky generally makes it a bit sharper and with it clocking in at almost 60% ABV, that’s not really necessary, or welcome.

Worth the money? Maybe. I think I’d rather spend it on the annual Cask Strength release, if you can get it.

86/100

Laphroaig Càirdeas Triple Wood, Ex-Bourbon, Quarter and Oloroso Sherry Casks, 59.5%, OB for Feis Ile 2019. Available in the secondary market.