Boutique-y Islay #3 Batch 6 29 Year

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This 29 year old mystery Islay single malt, believed to be from Laphroaig, was finished in Oloroso Sherry Octaves before bottling at a natural cask strength of 52.1%.

PRoducer Description

"A glorious 29 Year Old unnamed Islay malt that was distilled in 1993 and and some of it has been finished in Oloroso Octaves by ourselves. There’s a long held belief that when an Islay single malt is unnamed, it’s always Caol Ila! This is simply because Caol Ila is the largest distillery on the island…"

About The Label

"Sometimes we are allowed to say what distillery our whiskies come from, often happens when we’ve bought casks directly from the distillery. Sometimes we don’t even know! This occasionally happens when we’ve bought casks through a broker. To be honest, it’s not important to us… Another single malt from an unidentified Islay distillery, but wait a minute… Haven't we seen this label before? It’s the Living Room Whisky chaps on it doing a pose from a movie, and remarkably like our Laphroaig label - a clue perhaps? That’s the Boutique-y of of our labels - we can give the game away without naming the distillery as per the seller's request!"

500 ml

Region:Scotland > Islay
Vintage:1993

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Producer Tasting Note

Nose: Dried tropical fruits; mango, papaya, and even a hint of pineapple, with some oily cedarwood and some smoking herbs; sage perhaps?

Palate: An oily mouthfeel, with spicy ginger, fruit orange peel, aromatic cedar, hints of mint barbeque smoke and salty sea air.

Originally written by Evan for a blog post related to KWM's 2020 Whisky Calendar

This is one of the Islay classics, one of the peated beasts that makes you either love or fear this style of Single Malt Scotch. For me, this was the first heavily peated Scotch Whisky I ever purchased years and years ago. I was just getting into Scotch Whisky at the time, and I had no experience with the smoky, peated side of it yet. I just picked a bottle of Laphroaig 10 Year Old off the shelf because I liked the plain, stark style of the label on the tube I guess.

When I got around to cracking open the bottle and tasting it for the first time I honestly thought that there was something wrong with it, like a corked bottle of wine. I asked my Dad to taste it to see if I should take it back and he instead confirmed that yes, that is what Laphroaig is supposed to taste like. If memory serves, I choked down the rest of that bottle of Laphroaig 10 Year Old by mixing it with coke and ginger ale.

That first dive into the deep end of heavily peated Scotch is nearly two decades back in time for me now. After that, I started going to tastings and festivals and tried more Scotch and quickly developed a love for peated whisky.

Belly Of The Beast - Inside The Malt Kiln At Laphroaig Distillery

Laphroaig Distillery celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2015. Two centuries plus five years back now, it was founded by two brothers, who placed the distillery right on the shores of Islay. Today, it remains one of a handful of distilleries to at least partially supply its own malt. Using the floor maltings and kiln at the distillery, the malt is peated to a spec of between 50 and 60 PPM. The distillery’s own maltings can only supply about 15% percent of the malt needed, though. The rest is brought in from Port Ellen Maltings, which is less than a 10-minute drive to the west, on the opposite side of the town of Port Ellen. The sourced malted barley is peated between 35 and 45 PPM.

Two Kilometres down the road from Laphroaig Distillery is Lagavulin Distillery. Walk or drive another two clicks down the same road and you will hit Ardbeg Distillery.

On Islay, all other distilleries are dwarfed production-wise by Caol Ila. Laphroaig can outproduce most other Islay distilleries beyond that, but wouldn’t only be able to pump out half as much spirit as Caol Ila if they were both running at full capacity. However, Laphroaig is the number one selling Islay Single Malt Scotch brand. It also happens to be the favourite Scotch Whisky of the Duke of Rothesay, who also goes by Prince Charles when he is not in Scotland.

The core lineup of Laphroaig currently consists of the Laphroaig Select, the 10 Year Old, Quarter Cask, Triple Wood, Lore, and 25 Year Old. There is also a 10-Year-Old Cask Strength which sadly does not come to Canada. I believe we can all agree that is a travesty.

That Boutique-y Whisky Company (TBWC) is part of the Atom Group, which also owns the UK retailer Master of Malt and a number of other subsidiaries. They are a dynamic and innovative firm, who by example invented the Whisky Advent Calendar concept. Established in 2012, TBWC is famous for its playful and colourful labels, which often feature prominent whisky industry figures, tell a story, and or elude to an inside joke. The labels are typically laced with hidden elements and "Easter Eggs."

TBWC bottles whiskies from around the world, though the bulk of their offerings are of Scottish origin. Most of their offerings are small-batch releases, Blended Malts, and Blends. Their "Head of Whisky" is Canadian Sam Simmons.

We are big fans of not only their whimsical labels but also the consistently high standard of liquid they bottle.

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