Laphroaig Càirdeas 2024 - 52.4%
From the distillery
The 2024 Càirdeas limited edition release is a 10-year-old Laphroaig with a bold combination of flavours from the casks of two popular previous releases: 2019’s Triple Wood and 2021’s PX Cask. Bottled at a fixed strength of 52.4% ABV for a memorable character to share with Friends.
This 10-year-old Càirdeas edition celebrates 30 years of Friends of Laphroaig with casks from two well-loved Càirdeas releases: 2019’s Triple Wood and 2021’s PX Cask. This is a Laphroaig that matches our iconic smokiness and minerality with fruitier, sweeter qualities from the choice of cask.
It’s 30 years since we started the Friends of Laphroaig, so this edition of our Friends’ cask favourites is our way to say slàinte!
Tasting notes
Appearance: Dark copper in colour, forms a thin line which beads before slowly falling as thick, oily legs.
Nose: Sweet, medicinal peat smoke, crème anglaise, caramel sauce, Cadburys Fruit and Nut bars.
Palate: Full, oily and mouth coating. Sweet phenolic peat, caramelised and slightly charred orange slices, baked stone fruit, salted caramel sauce and California raisins.
Finish: Bonfire embers with subtle notes of chicory coffee, black liquorice, mild oak astringency and warming ginger.
Overall: 30 years of the Friends of Laphroaig is a big landmark, so any Càirdeas expression that accompanies it needs to be memorable, and for all the right reasons. A marriage of casks from two popular expressions from previous years would seem like a great place to start, and 10 years old tends to be a Laphroaig sweet spot as it allows that signature phenolic peat to really stand out.
The nose is everything you would want from a Laphroaig, the medicinal peat is perhaps not as big and punchy as other expressions but it still makes its presence known.
On the palate it’s a lovely, well balanced whisky with the cask influences harmonising beautifully with the phenolic peat. One of my first questions when I saw the description was which of the two cask types would be the more dominant. The answer is neither, they have merged together seamlessly to produce a sweet fruitiness that gradually becomes a little more nutty and savoury, together with a pleasant gingery warmth.
If I was asked whether this a whisky where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, I’d have to be honest and say not quite, but it’s close. The reason is purely because I’m a huge fan of the 2021 PX Càirdeas bottling, and that one just shades it for me. This is a lovely whisky nonetheless, and one which has certainly earned the right to be the Càirdeas bottling for the 30th Anniversary celebration.
If you would like more information on this whisky, the distillery or any of the other Laphroaig whiskies, follow the link to the company website.
