Laphroaig 36yo The Archive Collection
Laphroaig Distillery has just announced the release of its new whisky, which is also the first edition in a new series, The Archive Collection.
Laphroaig 36yo The Archive Collection (40.2% vol.) is a whisky distilled in 1985. It was initially matured in bourbon barrels, but was transferred to a second-fill hogshead sherry oloroso barrel for the final maturation stage.
As is clear from the above, the reference is to a limited edition, representing the contents of the said single barrel. Only 400 bottles have been prepared and are expected to go on sale later this month. The edition described here is dedicated to all those distillery employees who took care of the whisky during its maturation for more than three decades.
According to the manufacturer's information, in the aroma of this whisky we can expect notes of honey, peaches, mango, creamy toffee, vanilla, cedarwood licorice, golteria oil and burnt sage. On the taste we should expect accents of orange peel and tropical fruits.
The new whisky is already the second edition this year with an age declaration of 36yo. In September, Laphroaig 36yo was released as part of The Wall Collection. That one, however, focused more on Laphroaig's signature notes of smoke and peat in its profile. Both whiskies are among the oldest editions of Laphroaig ever to see the light of day.
The manufacturer announces the release of more editions as part of The Archive Collection series as early as next year.
Purchase of a single bottle Laphroaig 36yo The Archive Collection will mean an expense of GBP 3,750.
Laphroaig is one of three truly legendary distilleries located on the south coast of the island of Islay. The other two are Ardbeg and Lagavulin. All three have perhaps contributed most to the island's reputation for producing strongly peaty, smoky whisky, often not very friendly to the novice palate. Among them, Laphroaig's typical aroma-flavor profile, full of iodine and medicinal notes, as well as tar and railroad sleepers, seems to be the most difficult to accept by the not-so-practiced palate. The distillery itself until a while ago advertised its products as whiskey that you either love or hate.
Founded in 1815, Laphroaig is one of the oldest whisky makers on the island of Islay, recognized by the Scotch Whisky Association as one of the five original Scotch whisky producing regions. Older than it is only Bowmore, located in the village of the same name. Before the strongly peaty Port Charlotte and Octomore began to be produced in Bruichladdich, before the first editions of Kilchoman appeared on the market, before the proliferation of various editions of Caol Ila (until the early 2000s, Caol Ila 15yo Flora & Fauna was mainly, and not very widely, known) - it was mainly Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg that defined the meaning of the words "peaty whisky from Islay".
Laphroaig is also one of the largest Scotch malt whisky producers, located on Islay. The seven alembics operating there give the distillery a production potential of 3.3 million liters of pure alcohol per year. At the same time, it is one of the few distilleries in Scotland where whisky production also includes the step of malting barley in a traditional floor malting plant and drying it in drying houses topped with distinctive pagodas. If you add to this the fact that Laphroaig offers tours, including of the malting and drying facilities - it's hard not to agree with the statement that we are dealing with a unique distillery.
The current offerings of the House of Whisky Online include a wide range of whiskies from the Laphroaig distillery - from the now classic Laphroaig 10yo to the oldest whisky from the distillery to date, Laphroaig 40yo (current at the time of preparing this material). Please visit.
[21.11.2023 / photo: Laphroaig]