Review 270. Laphroaig Lore Cask Strength. Cairdeas Feis Ile 2025 release.

Feis Ile is a few weeks away. Still on my bucket list (Islay in general) and a few years ago I did do a series on ‘How to deal with Feis Ile FOMO’, trying to find Islay whiskies that are valid and solid alternatives for the sometimes hard to find and usually quite pricy Feis Ile releases. Apart from a Kilchoman I also covered two 10 yo Laphroaigs head to head, an official release and an indie ‘Williamson’.

I won’t be doing something like that again this time  as just last month I did another review of Laphroaig (their recent travel retail 12 yo). And I won’t ramble on too much on my thoughts about Laphroaig in recent times as that has been done as well. So I’ll keep this short and to the point, focusing very much on today’s whisky.  Because what I do have (or had) here, are (were) the heels of a cask strength version of what used to be one of my favourite expressions from Laphroaig: their Lore. Used to be  because while the official RRP still is around €80 (£65-£70) it’s becoming quite hard to find it at that price, these days. This bottle was released in the Cairdeas series (pronounced, apparently, a bit like Car chess, which means friendship in Gaelic) which in turn is part of their ‘Friends of Laphroaig’ releases. The Lore range is indeed a NAS expression from Laphroaig, and not an inexpensive one at that, but they are quiet open on what goes into it. For the Lore, they mix casks containing 21 year old whisky with much younger stuff, the youngest (and let’s be honest: likely the bulk of it) as old/young as 7 yo whisky to create something both powerful and rounded, vibrant and with depth, using bourbon-, oloroso-, European oak- and quarter casks. So when my dear pal Nic thrusted this into my hands on our last meet-up, I was quite excited to see where this would take me.

Laphroaig Lore Cask Strength.  Cairdeas  Feis Ile 2025 release. 59.6% ABV.  NC, UCF, app. €95 - €120 (£85 - £110)

The ‘heels’ turned out to be quite generous. So much so, they were more like ‘ankles’, meaning I did get to try 3 decent pours out of the remains of this bottle. Usually I tend to pour rather small portions for a review. A 5 cl sample will give me 2 pours, a 3 cl one usually 1.5 pours even. This one allowed 2 ‘normal’ 3-3.5 cl pours and one very generous one of easily 5-6 cl. Which means I got to enjoy this over the course of 2 weekends, with (hopefully) the notes to match it.

Nose

Big and bold on (dried) fruit, offering a lot of berries, raisins, sultanas and plums. The smoke is clear and present, and ‘sweet’, as in bonfire/bbq smoke. Interestingly it does play 2^nd fiddle here. There’s toffee apples, caramel and the -noblesse oblige – iodine and salinity notes. It also has an almost dirty oiliness to it, like a greasy, oiled up workshop cloth. Want more? There’s hints of leather, tobacco and pencil shavings and dark, almost bittersweet honey. Yum!

Palate

A barrage of fruit, tannins, oak, varnish and wax, pepper, some ginger and clove, leather and smoke! The peat is there too, but less in a medicinal way and more earthy. After that initial blast from the high ABV (we’re pushing on 60% here), it’s actually quite drinkable neat. The mouthfeel is VERY clinging and mouthcoating - drying. Nonetheless, a few drops of water aren’t a bad idea as it makes for a rather interesting development, accentuating the spicier notes while tuning down the smoke and peat. Did I say ‘yum’ already?

Finish

Long, woody, drying and spicy. It lingers and lingers for a long time  as the echo of smoke hangs around for minutes!

Final thoughts

Well safe to say this was a most excellent adventure! A ‘classic’ Laphroaig showcasing just what they’re capable of and what wonderful things can be achieved if they leave the whisky to do the talking. It carries depth, flavour, character… And a wee shoutout to the balance on this one as well, with the peat and smoke leaving a signature mark without outplaying everything else this whisky has to offer. This is a good example if you want to explore all the things that make Islay whisky special and unique. And, truth be told, with the prices for the ‘regular’ Lore creeping up, the extra pounds they understandably charge for this cask strength version make it well worth hitting (or, if you’re lucky: near-missing) that 3 digit barrier.