Product description
In 2005, Jim Beam Global, then part of the Fortune Brands conglomerate and now Beam Suntory, acquired Laphroaig Distillery.
The plant still produces malt itself, although its own malting house covers only 20% of demand, and seven small stills produce over 3 million litres of distillate a year. Laphroaig is the best-selling single malt on the island; with annual sales of around 3.7 million bottles, it outstrips its closest rivals, Lagavulin and Bowmore. The 30-year-old version presented here debuted in 1997, when the distillery belonged to the Allied Domecq group. It was blended from distillates aged in American and European oak barrels and bottled (until 2007) at 43% abv.
Nose: very rich, lots of red berries, apples, prunes, banana cake, milk chocolate, caramel, vanilla, cloves, peat smoke and sherry-soaked oak.
Taste: well-balanced, raisins, dried plums, chocolate-covered cherries, oranges, nutmeg, a bit of pepper and ginger, notes of tobacco and oak.
Finish: long, a combination of sherry and peat smoke, sweet dried fruit, some nutmeg, leather and oak.