Elements of Islay – Lp9 [Laphroaig] 54,3% ABV!

Dear friends, followers, and supporters alike! When working this years Borlänge Beer and Whiskyfestival last weekend ("as usual" for Edrington Sweden), I was very happy that my good friend Tina Sundblom from Clydesdale came by and said: We brought the new Laphroaig from Elements of Islay, if you want to review it do pop by and sample it!. Well folks, that was something I really wanted to review so as you can imagine it did not take me very long to do just that. In fact, ever since I saw Clydesdale post the news on their FB-page that they would release this one here in Sweden very soon, my mouth has been watering just by looking at the color...

Tina also told me that they just now received three extra boxes or so of this one, so right now there should be around 20 or so bottles ready to order via the swedish state monopoly, and you can find it by clicking here. Ok, the whisky has been matured for 19 years (vintage 1998) in a Pedro Ximénez sherry butt, it has been bottled at 54,3% ABV (cask strength I assume), and the cask gave 714 50cl bottles. Ok, let's nose it!

Nose:

Really dark notes in this one folks! Ashy vanilla, mysterious old and lurking peat in the form of moist old leather and old boots intermingling with rawsugar and dark, dark, dark almond paste (”Who has ever heard of such a thing?!”). The peat kind of makes me think of decayed seaweed but at the same time there is some kind of pollen in there… and deep in the mix there are actually some preserved plums (perhaps even plums preserved in whisky?). Vere deep, very dark. Ok, a sip?

Taste:

Oh my g… wow, starts off on the old and mysterious peat, very ocean-y but still with elements of syrup made from rawsugar. Then comes a beauuutiful fruityness, not like the one on the nose but rather dark and big supermoist raisins, but, in liquid form! The whisky definitely feels very sluggish in my mouth; with medium dryness, the flavours develop slowly but beautifully, my mouth is filled with dark liquid honey with a peaty touch to it. As the ”alcohol-fumes” rise, I experience the flavours of leather, seaweed and ashes slowly rising in my mouth. The aftertaste is slow and long, the dark peat comes in waves together with oven-baked orange peel sprinkled with salt and seaweed, and what remains is the aftertaste of smoke from a fat peaty cigar… wow!

To sum up: Well folks, as you know I absolutely love Laphroaig, and this one is definitely not an exception! After 19 years in one PX Butt the whisky has become simply amazing and (for some reason) I did not expect it to be so ”alive”. At the core of everything (both the nose and the taste) is of course the old peat absolutely drenched in dark notes. If you’ve never tried old heavy Laphroaigs, you should really try this one, and hurry up! 

Big, big thanks to Tina and Clydesdale for the possibility to try this whisky! In order to receive kind of weekly updates, please make sure to follow my FB-page by clicking here, my instagram by clicking here and my twitter-page by clicking here. Copyright © and All Rights Reserved on all tasting notes and text by SamuelWhisky and pictures and videos likewise belong to SamuelWhisky, unless stated. If you would like to use any such material that belongs to SamuelWhisky or associated with SamuelWhisky, please ask by sending me an email to samuelkarlssonorebro [at] gmail [dot] com and by stating the source.

Picture borrowed from whisky.fr   

Swedish Whisky from Smögen Distillery – Barrique! 7yo 60,3% ABV

Dear friends and followers alike! About a month ago I worked for Edrington at this years Whiskyexpo in Linköping. As I most often do I passed by the stand of Smögen Distillery to talk to Pär Caldenby (Master Distiller and Distillery Manager) to see if he had anything that he wanted me to review. Most willingly he shared a sample of their coming release called "Barrique!". Here in Sweden it will be released as a web launch this thursday (the 1st of March) and you can view it by clicking here. 

Barrique consists of a vatting of four european (french) barriques (225 litre casks) that has previously matured Bordeaux-wine. The casks used are number 4, 23, 24, and 25. The casks were filled with newmake starting in september 2010 ranging through to december 2010. The whisky was bottled at 60,3% ABV (natural cask strength) on the 8th of january 2018 making the whisky 7 years old. The (officially) oldest whisky from Smögen Distillery so far. The casks gave 1685 bottles out of which 1320 are available via the web launch.

Ok folks, let's see what we have here!

Nose:

A delicious, and very soft, symphony consisting of: peaty sea-salt (peat and sea-salt at the same time), raw-sugar syrup, old (sweaty?) leather shoes, distillery warehouse with a tad of faint yeast, and finally red Bassett’s winegums (or maybe rather the swedish candy ferraribilar). In the very center of the nose is a very firm peated dark vanilla fudge (think: ordinary vanilla fudge cubes but darker and peated). 

Taste:

Wow! This is definitely BIG whisky! Especially so on the peat, in fact, this is the peatiest whisky from Smögen I’ve ever had. The peat sure does have a real bite to it, wow… absolutely exellent mothfeel! It starts of classicaly Smögen-like with a mix of salty peat and sugar sweetness but it quickly moves on into a big peat that really grabs a hold of my mouth; the tounge, the (inside of my) cheeks, the back of my tounge, everything is effected by the dry tannins. When the tough side of the taste starts to cling of, the taste makes way for a beautiful softness that waters my mouth; the softness really makes way for the firm peated dark vanilla fudge that was on the nose, paired with an almost coffee-like soft peaty-ness that just goes on and on… for a brief moment the dryness of the tannins re-appear, but then everything becoms so soft again… wow

To sum up:

So, this my friends is how great and utterly mature 7 year old (!) whisky from Smögen Distillery can taste, wow! This is definitely THE best Swedish whisky I’ve tasted so far, no competition at all. So, is 7yo the peaking age for Smögen Distillery or can it be even better?! Boy do I long for the future ☺

Big thanks to Pär for the opportunity to try this release, and to be able to review it before the web launch. Please make sure to follow my FB-page by clicking here, my instagram by clicking here and my twitter-page by clicking here. Copyright © and All Rights Reserved on all tasting notes and text by SamuelWhisky and pictures likewise belong to SamuelWhisky, unless stated. If you would like to use any such material that belongs to SamuelWhisky or associated with SamuelWhisky, please ask by sending me an email to samuelkarlssonorebro[at]gmail.com and by stating the source

’Big Peat – X-mas 2014’ 53,8% ABV

Before I start digging deep into the latest shipment of samples from Clydesdale that arrived a couple of days ago (Clydesdale is one of Swedens top importer and seller of whisky), I just have to say hello to a sample that was in the shipment that arrived in September. Among the samples was the ’Big Peat’-christmas-2014-edition. I should think that most of you have heard of the Big Peat, but if not it is produced by Douglas Laing & Co. Now owned by one of the Laing-brothers, namely Fred. From what I have heard (and please correct me if I’m wrong) Big Peat mainly contains of malt whisky from a couple or so distilleries on Islay, and a wee splash of Port Ellen. In other words, Big Peat is a blended malt! 

In Sweden it will be released on the 17th of november. Ok, let’s see what we have here ☺

Nose:

Big peat indeed! A quiet ”smoky” peat and not just peatsmoke (if that makes any sense… probably not...) Anyways, we also have something very green and salt, if you can nose the salytness in salt. There are some touches of moulded cheese, and earthy dampness, that is something like earth cellar for foodstorage in ”the olden days” ;) Quiet spirity on the alcohol which makes it seem a bit young perhaps, some touches of distillate/raw-spirit. Let’s see if there is any Big peat on the palate!

Palate:

Begins very sea-salty, also salt liquorice, but in combo with a salt vanilla/fudge. Then comes the peat which I would definitely say is quite gentle! At least for the first couple of seconds. I keep the whisky in my mouth for a while and the alcohol strength is not at all overpowering, which is interesting. After swallowing I don’t have to wait long at all for the real big peat to kick in, and it does so in a really nice way ☺ Shortly after swallowing everything gets very dry on my tongue and the inside of my lips. Here I get a touch of a bit youngish feeling and also the moulded cheese is there. The aftertaste is looong, primarily ”smoke” and it warms my chest. Something for the winter night perhaps?!

A big thank you to the nice people at Clydesdale that keep sending me samples! And a big thanks to all of you out there all around the globe, thank you for following and please stay in touch via Facebook where there is a page for this blog, and likewise a profile on twitter here! Sláinte!