Laphroaig QA Cask
40% ABV - Islay, Scotland
Nose: Sweet peat smoke, toffee, iodine, and salt spray. Fruit and spices.
Taste: Rather light and delicate bringing mesquite smoke, citrus, and soft fruits.
Finish: Peppery peat smoke with salt and oak drying.
40% ABV!! The whisky snobs are snobbing at that! (I throw it around like a slur sometimes, I’ll have to admit.) Anyway, that’s the best humour I could think of to start. Off to the whisky, we go!
Laphroaig has a few travel retail offerings and they have recently updated their label design in 2024—so the QA Cask is now the "older" label design. I mention this because absent from that lineup has been this whisky! I have seen suggestions that the PX Cask (hurray!) and Four Oak (meh) will continue.
This one, the Laphroaig QA Cask, lands firmly between those other two 1L travel retail bottles according to my personal taste preferences. However, I scored the Four Oak the same in my review over a year ago. How about that!
As I sit back with the rest of the dram, I’m starting to wonder if this is the woodiest Laphroaig that I have tasted…
Details: Travel Retail Exclusive. Chill Filtered. (As an aside, I appreciate the transparency of that fact.)
Tasting Notes (Official): The first maturation of QA is in ex-bourbon barrels, followed by a transfer to un-charred American white oak casks (Quercus alba). This second intense maturation creates a blend of peat smoke balanced with warm, spicy vanilla notes. The length of time this powerful stage takes varies, meaning each cask is carefully selected by hand to ensure the exact balance of flavours.
Tasted 11 June 2024. (Posted 4 October 2024.)
