The Whisky Agency released a handful of Laphroaig 1998’s already, all in their Liquid Library series (e.g. this 11yo version bottled at 59,6%).

Laphroaig 12 yo 1998 (52,4%,
The Whisky Agency ‘Liquid Library’ 2010,
bourbon hogshead, 158 btl.)

Nose: everything you’d expect from medium aged Laphroaig: big smoke (slightly bigger than normal), coal, car workshop aromas, coastal notes (seaweed, oysters), medicinal notes (iodine, antiseptic). It’s rather dry, although there are faint sweet almond notes in the background as well and a hint of citrus. Laphroaig’s recipe is still perfectly accurate. Mouth: powerful, quite sweet now with marzipan notes and barley sugars. Earthy peat and big smoke. Getting salty with hints of liquorice. With some water, the sweetness is replaced with typical lemon notes. Mouth: long with a nice balance of rounded sweetness and dry peat. Some liquorice.

This is a perfect daily dram for peat lovers, not too complex and simply faultless. In fact I think you can never go wrong with this kind of Laphroaig. Around € 65.

Score: 86/100