This Laphroaig 1990 was bottled by The Whisky Agency in association with The Whisky Exchange (their first joint bottling as far as I know). I’ve only seen it available from German shops so far, but I expect we’ll see it arrive at TWE as well in the near future.

We’ll compare it to the Laphroaig 1990 by Malts of Scotland, bottled earlier this year and one of my favourite 1990’s so far. Tomorrow we’ll match it to another bottling.

Laphroaig 21 yo 1990 (55,9%, The Whisky Agency & The Whisky Exchange ‘Private Stock’ 2011, bourbon hogshead, 264 btl.)

Nose: starts very similar, with maritime hints (seaweed, oysters) and smoke. It evolves to a fresher profile though, with more lemon and almost none of the banana / cake / vanilla notes of the MoS version. More classical we’d say. Some green apple. Almonds. Soft medicinal notes in the background. Very clean overall. Mouth: quite dry, with oily elements, smoke, iodine and lemon. A pinch of salt. Liquorice. Slightly leafy towards the end. Balancing citrus. Definitely less sweet and rounded than the one from MoS, and more focused on coastal elements. Finish: long and dry, with salty notes, lemon zest and liquorice.

I’ve always had the impression ‘Private Stock’ was kind of a premium label within the TWA releases. While this Laphroaig is very good, I’m missing kind of a “wow” factor compared to other 1990’s even from the same bottler. Anyway the price is the same as before and the quality is certainly up there, so maybe I’m just confused by the label. Around € 120.

Score: 89/100