Laphroaig "SMWS 29.139 - Why Do Fools Fall In Love", 18 yo. (d: 1995,b: 2013)
 
Style & Origin
styleScotch Single Malt Whisky
region Islay, South Shore
age18 yo.
strength59.9% (119.8 proof)
peatedyes
distilled1995
bottled2013
price$135
availabilityexclusive (Scotch Malt Whisky Society)
bottler Scotch Malt Whisky Society
distillery Laphroaig
Bar Log
Wed., Feb. 19, 2014bottle #762 added to stock
Wed., Feb. 19, 2014feature presentation of bottle #762 by
Wed., Dec. 10, 2014bottle #762 killed
Release Notes
Distilled on April 4th, 1995, bottled in 2013, one of 167 bottles filled from the cask.
Yours Truly
3rd Party Tasting Notes
Coal tar, charcoal, cinders, roast pork belly and sea salted crisps; the taste big, hot ashy embers and a well cleaned hospital floor. With the addition of water, pencil shavings and honey glazed gammon and the taste taking an Elastoplast off with your teeth - we loved it!
SMWS
Regular Tasting Results
# Taster Date Nose Taste Finish Balance Total
1 Alex Gurevich 9 8 7 7 31
2 Brian Smith 9 9 8 9 35
3 Chris Sinclair 10 10 8 8 36
4 David Drell 8 7 6 6 27
5 Jason McDade 7 9 8 8 32
6 Jason McDade 7 9 8 8 32
7 Jason Sklar 3 3 6 5 17
8 Jason Sklar 2 4 3 3 12
9 Jim Leuper 8 9 9 9 35
10 Julie Hassett 9 9 8 9 35
11 Kai Wang 7 8 7 6 28
12 Kolja Erman 8 9 8 9 34
13 Kolja Erman 7 8 8 7 30
14 Kyle Milardo 8 6 6 6 26
15 Lalie Fisher 7 7 6 6 26
16 Leighton Hickman 7 8 6 7 28
17 Russell Pearsall 10 9 9 8 36
18 Sean Looper 7 8 9 8 32
19 Sean Looper 8 10 9 9 36
20 Stuart Campbell 8 8 8 9 33
21 Stuart Campbell 8 8 7 7 30
22 Tom Owens 9 8 9 9 35
23 Unknown Donor 9 9 8 9 35
Nose: very clean
Taste: delicious
Brian Smith
Taste: smoked venison
Chris Sinclair
Nose: apples, pears, raisin and spice
Taste: a bit too smokey but otherwise nice
Finish: funny flavor on the tongue
Balance: a bit of a downward trend from the nose
David Drell
Balance: awesome!!
Jason McDade
Nose: apple
Taste: citrus
Jason McDade
Nose: feeling the heat up the nostrils
Taste: engulfs the palate with boom(?) flavor
Finish: tender burn down the throat
Balance: tender with char
Jason Sklar
Nose: very strong, earthy
Taste: (?)
Finish: (?)
Balance: uneven
Jason Sklar
Nose: sniff of campfire while standing front of your medicine cabinet
Taste: Wow. Wow. Wow.
Finish: classic Islay, campfire by the sea, long, slow burn
Balance: it brings a smile to my face
Jim Leuper
Nose: Heaven I: Bonfire on the beach, cinnamon, firemen peeling off their uniform
Taste: Heaven II: in the nasal passage, burning embers
Finish: Heaven III: long, woody, back of the tongue
Balance: I am in lust
Julie Hassett
Nose: floral, little bit smoke and sweet, caramel
Taste: kick in the butt byt the alcohol in the beginning with a caramel taste in the end
Finish: too much alcohol burn
Balance: butt kicking from the beginning to the end
Kai Wang
Nose: floor cleaner, really tasty, floor cleaner, pine, lemon, alcohol shows, faint wood after a second, smoky on skin
Taste: peat, embers, heat, lingering notes of near-burned toast, unfolds in strong pulses of liquified fireplace flavors
Finish: insta-flamethrower on first breath, flavor comes back after second sip, rum-soaked creme brulee
Balance: like an abusive relationship, punches you in the face then apologizes and tickles you in all your favorite places. Emotional rollercoaster. Each individual aspect is like a douchey and obnoxious friend of a friend but together they are having a loud, drunk and extremely fun party in my mouth. That sounds wrong.
Kolja Erman
Nose: wood, light, bitterish
Taste: intense, strong, spastic, quick to disappear
Finish: uneven but (?)
Balance: attempts to eevn out, raw final with odd chocolate. Water helps but boosts rawness on finish
Kolja Erman
Nose: peaty but not heavy, rosey
Taste: sweet off the tip but settles nicely on the back of the tongue
Finish: that linger in the back is nice, holds and builds
Balance: built nicely, gave me what I expected but did not throw in nice surprises
Kyle Milardo
Nose: sweet burn, slight (?)
Taste: burn is less, fruit dissipates, smoke comes out
Finish: burn lingers but is welcomed(?), smoke stays as well
Lalie Fisher
Nose: exactly what I want, campfire
Taste: fiery, demands attention
Finish: a tad rough but I like how long it stays with me
Balance: a little sharp but that could be me
Russell Pearsall
Nose: peaty (duh)
Sean Looper
Nose: peat starts morphing into pinesol, very clean but also welcoming
Taste: good tangy flavour up front leaving hot peat at end. But through the heat vanilla comes through.
Finish: changes with each taste. Initially it explodes then quiets to a blancmange flavour, then explodes, etc.
Balance: great fun, each taste goes from one extreme to another in subtlety.
Stuart Campbell
Nose: peat, what can I say
Taste: oily, strong up front, vibrant
Finish: not much at first but fills as it goes
Balance: gets there but it takes time to build
Stuart Campbell
Nose: like a punch in the nose at the start but so much going on, vicks, wood smoke, rosemary, chocolate, drops of water added mint leaves
Taste: bizarre mixture of nuts, smoked cheddar?!? Dried fruit, a dinner party
Finish: very pleasant, warm and chocolatey
Balance: comforting like a hug, very warming, great stuff.
Tom Owens
Nose: strong, super peaty, awesome, intense, yum
Taste: super nove in your mouth
Finish: burning intoxication, hot, heat, warming burn, yum
Balance: intense, concentrated Laphroaig extract
Unknown Donor
The Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Established: 1983
Silent since: False
Address: Scotland
→ website
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS), founded in Edinburgh in 1983, is a membership organisation which bottles and sells single cask, single malt whisky. It purchases individual casks from more than 125 malt whisky distilleries in Scotland and throughout the world, bottles them and retails directly to its members. It also runs three private members’ rooms in the UK and in several international locations.

The origins of the Society lie in Phillip “Pip” Hills’ travels around the Scottish Highlands in the late 1970s, during which he sampled several whiskies drawn straight from the cask.

Hills was so affected by what he tasted that, in 1978, he persuaded several acquaintances to share in the cost of a cask from the Glenfarclas distillery. Over time, the group of friends expanded to become a small syndicate and more casks were purchased, bottled and distributed to subscribing members.

Coinciding with the decision to open membership to the wider public in 1983, the Society purchased its first property, The Vaults, in Leith; a building, whose vaulted wine cellars reputedly stretch back to the 12th century.

The Society created a set of members’ rooms there.

In 1996, the Society launched a share scheme for its members, the proceeds from which were invested in the purchase of a London venue.

2004 saw the Society purchase a second venue in Edinburgh – a Georgian townhouse on Queen Street. In the same year, the Society was acquired by Glenmorangie PLC.

To mark the 25th anniversary of its foundation, the Society redesigned its bottles, to include more information and a full tasting note on the front of the bottle.
from Wikipedia
The Distillery: Laphroaig
Established: 1815
Silent since: False
Address: Port Ellen, Isle of Islay, Argyll, PA42 7DU, UK
→ website
In the new Millenium
The Laphroaig distillery is arguably the most famous distillery on Islay. The island itself is famous for its pungent, peaty malts, so I guess that sort of makes the Laphroaig single malt the most famous peaty whisky. Laphroaig wasn"t my first peated malt whisky experience, but if I"m not mistaken it was the first other " peat monster" I tried after my discovery of the Lagavulin 16yo in 1991 - and I liked it a lot!
As far as I know the book is the first of its kind; a detailed history of a specific Scotch whisky distillery that was NOT written by their PR people. Well, those can have their own quirky charm as well I suppose; I still cherish the autographed copy of "The Definitive Guide To Buying Vintage Macallan" that Indian maniac Krishna gave me. I admire the boldness of charging £10,- for what"s basically a brochure for expensive bottlings (keeps the riff-raff from reading it, I suppose), but some of the proudly featured "antiques" later turned out to be fakes. A talented faker had convinced the PR people of Macallan to buy these bottles for their own archives...
But I"m getting side-tracked... The topic was Laphroaig distillery. I visited the distillery with some other maniacs during "Feis Ile 2005". The Islay Festival is great way to know the distilleries, the island and its inhabitants - which included quite a few swans and seals when we were there in May 2005. Every distillery on the island releases one or more " festival bottlings" each year, and those from Laphroaig are usually excellent - and relatively affordable too...
Ian Hunter had no descendants, so he left the distillery to his secretary, Elisabeth ("Bessie") Williamson. Bessie was the first female distillery manager on Islay (and quite probably in all Scotland); she managed Laphroaig until her retirement in 1972.
These were just a few small tidbits of information from the rich and diverse history of the Laphroaig distillery. Dutch writers Marcel van Gils and Hans Offringa have published a great book about it; The Legend of Laphroaig. The massive book (ISBN 9789089100276, published in 2007) is a must-have for all true Laphroaig fanatics. If you"re interested, you can order it via the official Laphroaig website (see above) or through Marcel van Gils" on-line shrine that"s at www.laphroaigcollector.com. The book is beautifully illustrated!
Laphroaig was "officially" founded in 1815 but rumour has it that the brothers Alexander and Donald Johnston actually built it around 1810 when they started farming in the area. The first official registration of the distillery wasn"t until 1826. The distillery remained in the Johnston family until 1954 when Ian Hunter left it to one Bessie Williamson.
I"ll get back to Bessie in a moment - there"s another little nugget of history I"d like to share with you first. The Johnston family provides a link between Laphroaig and another distillery on Islay: Tallant. It is long gone now (according to my copy of the "Moss & Hume" bible it was closed in 1852), but it was owned by another branch of the Johnston family tree. In those days, people still married their nephews and nieces (if they liked them enough), so after a marriage Laphroaig and Tallant were owned by the same family for a while. Unlike the name suggests, Ian William Hunter was a member of the Johnston family as well. He started working at Laphroaig in 1908 and remained there until his death in 1954.
And that"s the "general information" on the Laphroaig distillery so far... There"s a lot more to tell about Laphroaig, but the available space on this page is limited. So, I kindly refer you to the book "The Legend of Laphroaig" (by Marcel van Gils & Hans Offringa) for much more information about the history of the Laphroaig distillery. The "trivia" below are just a few tips of the iceberg - and the very top part of the tips at that...
As far as the bottlings are concerned; you can find my tasting notes on a few recent expressions at the bottom of this page. Generally speaking, I like recent official bottlings slightly less than I used to, simply because the value has decreased a little. At the end of the 1990"s many young "antiques" that had been bottled before, say, 1980 were more expensive than their siplings that were distilled in that year and bottled in their twenties. It"s safe to say that this situation has now changed...
2002 - Ian Henderson (who started his career at Laphroaig in 1989) retires as distillery manager.
2004 - The first edition of the Laphroaig "Quarter Cask" is launched. The whisky has no age statement, but it"s supposedly a vatting of "quarter casks" that have matured for circa five years. The contents of these casks is a little over 100 litres, so the wood-to-whisky ratio is much higher than in regular casks. This affects maturation.
2005 - The Laphroaig distillery is acquired by Fortune Brands, a subsidiary of Beam Global Spirits & Wine.
Trivia:
  • Most distilleries have an even number of stills; x sets of a wash still and a spirit still. However, Laphroaig has an uneven number of stills - seven to be exact. In 1968 the number of stills was expanded from four to six and when Bessie Williamson retired in 1972 a seventh still was added - an extra spirit still.
  • Laphroaig stands on the "grave" of another distillery in the Kildalton area of Islay. Unlike the aforementioned Tallant distillery, the Ardenistle distillery (a.k.a. Ardenestiel or Aredenistiel) was located right next to Laphroaig. It was founded in 1837 by Andrew & James Stein - but it was discontinued again just a decade later, around 1848. The remains are now part of the Laphroaig distillery.
  • Laphroaig has been the only whisky to carry the Royal Warrant of the Prince of Wales (the 15-year-old is reportedly his favourite scotch whisky), which was awarded in person during a visit to the distillery in 1994.
from Malt Maniacs
The Owner: Fortune Brands
Established: 1890
Silent since: False
Address: Fortune Brands, Inc., 520 Lake Cook Road, Deerfield, IL 60015
→ website
By the late 1990s, Fortune was rather different from what it had been ten years earlier. After getting rid of its tobacco holdings, Fortune began buying up companies in the home and office products area, such as Schrock Cabinet Co. and Apollo Presentation Products, a maker of overhead projectors. It also bought in the liquor segment, picking up Geyser Peak Winery in 1998 and entering an agreement in 1999 with two European liquor companies to jointly distribute their spirits worldwide. Fortune also vowed to better manage the brands in its portfolio, and in 1999 took a charge of $1.2 billion to restructure and write down goodwill. The company also announced it would cut costs by reducing its corporate staff by one-third and moving its headquarters to Lincolnshire, Illinois, where its office products division already was located.
From the complex dissolution of American Tobacco, designed and overseen by James Duke himself, came the elements of the modern tobacco industry. Spun off as new corporate entities were Liggett & Meyers, Lorillard, R.J. Reynolds, and a new, smaller American Tobacco Company. With the exception of Reynolds, these companies were given assets in all phases of the tobacco business, and Reynolds, the youngest and most aggressive of the companies, soon acquired what it lacked. Control of British-American Tobacco was lost to the British, where it has remained. Duke turned over direction of American Tobacco to Percival S. Hill, one of his veteran lieutenants, and himself went with British-American as chairman and one of its directors. The founder retained large holdings of stock in each of the newly formed spin-offs and, upon his death, left a great deal of money to the eponymous Duke University and a score of other charitable causes.
The immediate postwar years were good for American Tobacco, which upped its overall share of the domestic tobacco market to 32.6 percent in 1953. However, that would prove to be the high-water mark for the company"s cigarette business. In the long run, however, American Tobacco"s relative failure in cigarettes may have been a blessing. Beginning in the mid-1960s, the company used the steady cash flow from its remaining tobacco business to make a number of promising acquisitions. Chief among these were Gallagher Ltd., one of the United Kingdom"s largest tobacco companies; James B. Beam Distilling Company; Sunshine Biscuits; Duffy-Mott; and several makers of office products. In recognition of the company"s changing profile, it was renamed American Brands in 1969, by which date its share of the domestic tobacco market had slipped to 20 percent and continued to decline. After a handful of other minor acquisitions, American Brands made its largest purchase in 1979, buying The Franklin Life Insurance Company, the tenth largest life insurer in the United States. By that time, non-tobacco assets were generating one-third of American Brands" operating income of $364 million, and the company"s diversification program generally was regarded as a modest success.
Duke"s control of United Cigar Stores" more than 500 outlets gave the public a clearer picture of the extent of Duke"s domain, and his company soon faced rising criticism and opposition, some of it violent. Those in both the industry and the public had reason to dislike Duke and his cartel; Kentucky tobacco growers, for example, their prices repeatedly lowered by the single large buyer in town, banded together in 1906 to burn down a number of the trust"s large tobacco warehouses. More serious was the increasing pressure brought to bear by the U.S. Department of Justice, which took heart under the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt and began a series of antitrust actions against the industrial combines. In 1907, the department filed suit against Duke"s creation, now once again called American Tobacco Company, and in 1911 the Supreme Court agreed that the trust must be dissolved to restore competition to the tobacco industry. Total corporate assets were estimated at more than $500 million.
Fortune Brands traces its origin to the remarkable career of James Buchanan (Buck) Duke, founder of The American Tobacco Company. Duke was born in 1856 on a small farm outside Durham, North Carolina, where his father, Washington Duke, raised crops and livestock. The Duke farm was ravaged by armies of both North and South at the end of the Civil War, and upon his release from a military prison Washington Duke found that his sole remaining asset was a small barn full of bright leaf tobacco. Bright leaf, so called because of its golden color, had been introduced only recently, but its smooth smoking characteristics were already making it a favorite, and its fame was soon spread by the returning war veterans. Duke set out to peddle what leaf he had, and, pleased with the response, he quickly converted his land to tobacco culture, selling his wares under the name Pro Bono Publico, meaning "for the public good" in Latin. In its first year of operation, W. Duke & Sons sold 15,000 pounds of tobacco and netted a very handsome $5,000.
Duke had grown to dominance of the cigarette business in a single decade and, shortly, was to duplicate the feat worldwide. Though triumphant, Duke was faced with the prospect of continuing bitter competition and restricted profits. The 32-year-old veteran thereupon proposed a solution that was startling in scope: to merge all five of the competitors and, by joining forces, bring to an end the wasteful price warfare. His fellow manufacturers at first balked at the initiative, but they eventually agreed and in January 1890 formed The American Tobacco Company, its $25 million in capital divided among ten incorporators, with J.B. Duke named president. The new company, one of the first true combinations in the history of U.S. business, controlled 80 percent of the nation"s cigarette business and showed a net profit of $3 million in its first year.
Fortune Brands, Inc., is a widely diversified conglomerate with principal businesses in distilled spirits, home products, hardware, office supplies, and golf equipment. Most of its brands are either number one or number two in their market categories. Fortune"s brands include Jim Beam, the world"s best-selling bourbon, Swingline staplers, Acco paper clips, Master Lock padlocks, Moen faucets, and Titleist and Pinnacle golf balls. Fortune was a major player in the tobacco industry until the late 1990s, when it sold its domestic and foreign tobacco interests and got out of that business entirely. Nearly 20 of the company"s brands generate more than $100 million in sales.
In 1991, American Brands strengthened its hold on the distilled spirits market by acquiring seven brands from the Seagram Company. American spent $372.5 million for the brands, which represented approximately one-quarter of giant Seagram"s sales in the United States. In the midst of a turndown in liquor consumption, Seagram had decided that those who were drinking less should drink better. Thus, it wanted to unload some of its less prestigious brands. American, however, was deliberately pursuing the opposite tack, aiming for more budget-conscious consumers. The brands it took over from Seagram were the American whiskies Calvert Extra and Kessler, Canadian whisky Lord Calvert, Calvert gin, Ronrico rum, Wolfschmidt vodka, and Leroux liquor. The acquisition made American"s subsidiary Jim Beam Brand Company the third largest spirits company in the United States. American"s strategy seemed profitable. Though its new liquor brands and its tobacco brands lacked both snob appeal and great market share, they did make money. Profits rose to record levels in 1991, with a rise of almost 40 percent for the year. Liquor sales, bucked by the Seagram acquisition, rose 12 percent, and tobacco sales rose all of 1 percent. This small rise, however, was the first increase for American since 1965.
The company then changed its name in 1996, from American Brands to Fortune Brands. This came after the company sold the last vestige of its tobacco business, its British unit, Gallagher. The company was concerned that investors still associated its old name with a tobacco company. For example, when a smoker in Florida won a substantial jury award against another tobacco company in August 1995, American"s stock suffered. The newly named company"s CEO, Thomas Hays, explained the rationale behind the choice, saying, "People talk a lot about something being fortunate or making a fortune, which is certainly what we want to do for our shareholders" (from a December 9, 1996 interview in Fortune magazine).
from FundingUniverse.com