Tasting Notes

Producing WhiskyCast has given me the opportunity to taste some really amazing whiskies, and I’m pleased to share my tasting notes with you here. You can search my entire database of tasting notes from this page, and I hope you’ll find it useful.

Laphroaig Cairdeas 2015 Release

Country: Scotland

Region: Islay

Type: Single Malt

Bottler: Distiller

ABV: 51.5%

Score: 91 Points

Laphroaig Cairdeas 2015 Release. Photo ©2015 by Mark Gillespie.After a couple of years of Cairdeas Feis Ile bottlings with wine cask finishes, Laphroaig went back to basics for the distillery’s 200th anniversary Feis Ile expression. This whisky is a little more than 11 years old, distilled in the older and smaller stills at Laphroaig, and matured exclusively in ex-Bourbon casks.

The nose has a warm smokiness and touches of brine, heather, vanilla, and honey. The taste has a wonderful peaty smokiness that grows on you with balancing notes of cinnamon, heather, honey, vanilla, and cocoa beans. The finish is long and smoky in the classic Laphroaig style. (June, 2015)