SMWS 29.279 Now Let Us Take A Kind Farewell Laphroaig 19 Year Old 2001 57.3% ABV

Laphroaig 19 Year Old 2001, Scotch Malt Whisky Society cask 29.279 Now Let Us Take A Kind Farewell, is a single cask single malt Scotch from the Laphroaig distillery in the Islay region (SMWS distillery code 29). Distilled on 14 February 2001, it was matured for 19 years in a refill oloroso butt and bottled at a natural cask strength of 57.3% ABV, with an outturn of just 590 bottles. It comes in a 750ml bottle. The Society places it in its Heavily peated flavour profile, and its Tasting Panel describes a full-on, coastal and medicinal peat monster of sea salt, tar and iodine. Like every SMWS bottling it is presented at cask strength without chill filtration, and the label carries the Society's cask code rather than the distillery name.

Nose: Sea salt, salty pasta water, ramen broth and dried seaweed, then soy sauce, metal polish, witch hazel and wintergreen; water adds smouldering eucalyptus, machine oil, ember-baked potatoes, wet kelp and brined lemons

Palate: A surge of creosote, tar, iodine, antiseptic bandages and oily rags; with water smoked herbal tea, drifting kiln peat smoke, camphor, smoked game and black pepper

Serve: Neat first, then with a few drops of water to open it up; at full cask strength it rewards patience.