Skip to main content

3 best bottles: Laphroaig single malt Scotch whisky

laphroaig best whisky img 0554
Scotch drinkers fall into two categories: Those who love Islay whiskies, and those who detest them. And no other distillery embodies the intense peat-smoke Islay flavor like Laphroaig. Located along the southern coast of Islay, an island off Scotland’s mainland in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Laphroaig distillery has operated since the 1815, pumping out a dram so pungent, peaty, and distinct, that even an amateur could identify a glass of the fiery amber liquid from smell alone. Laphroaig, in other words, is an acquired taste – but once you have it, few other Scotches can compete.

So if you’re just learning about Scotch now, or want to get adventurous with your next buy, here are the three best bottles Laphroaig makes.

Related Videos
LP_QuarterCask

Quarter Cask

First introduced in 2004, Laphroaig Quarter Cask differs from its brethren bottles due to a unique aging process. The whisky spends its first five years maturing in the same large barrels as most any other Scotch. But for its final seven months of maturation, the spirit is aged in smaller barrels known as quarter casks. Doing so allows the whisky to “age” much faster, as it greatly increases the liquid’s contact with the barrel.

The result is an extremely smooth and complex dram on par with much older whiskies that maintains Laphraoig’s signature peat smoke, seaweed, and iodine flavors. Combine top-shelf flavor with a middle-shelf price tag (about $50), and you have one of the Laphroaig’s most popular bottles.

Laphroaig-10

Original Cask Strength

Not to be confused with Laphraoig’s standard 10-year-old bottle (which is also good), Cask Strength is bottled at natural distillery strength – meaning it hasn’t been watered down in the slightest. That means your staring down the glass at around 55 to 60 percent ABV (110 to 120 proof). Add in a supreme blast of peat smoke, salty sea air, and iodine, and you’re looking at one of the most intense drams you can buy. And damn, it’s good – as in, it’s won dozens of awards since 2001, including Best Scottish Single Malt in 2005 from Whisky Magazine.

Pro tip: To open up the complexities of this knotty dram, add in a teaspoon of room-temperature water. But no ice!

Laphroaig-18-year

18 Year Old

Rich in flavor but more balanced than the younger Laphroaigs, the 18-year-old may be the best bottle from this distillery to convince a skeptical taster – that is, if you can get your hands on a bottle, which are limited each year. The peat flavor is still there, but it’s subtler than what you’ll find in the Quarter Cask and (especially) the Cask Strength. And you’ll find a wealth of undertones in this dram that range from orange and spice notes to anise, dark chocolate, and licorice. If all that sounds like your cup of, well, whisky, be prepared to lay out around $125 for a bottle.

Be sure to check back with The Manual next month for the best three whiskies from Bushmills.

Editors' Recommendations

Here’s how to make a margarita, according to top bartenders
The only margarita recipes you'll ever need
margarita tequila cocktail lime strainer

The best margaritas do not grow on trees, nor do they show up in a can (although there are some tasty canned drinks these days). No, the tastiest version of the tequila classic is made fresh, with love and care and some wisdom from a couple of top bartenders.

It's a balancing act, for sure, but when it's dialed-in, the margarita is one of the best and most refreshing cocktails ever devised. The classic mix of agave spirit, lime, salt, and a touch of sweetness is great alone or with any number of dishes, especially within Mexican cuisine (the nation where the drink was born).

Read more
Bubbly? Full-bodied and red? Zesty and white? Your favorite wine types, explained
All the primary types of wine (and everything you need to know about them)
Glasses of different kinds of wine

Trying to understand everything about wine all at once is an impossible endeavor. Wine is a beautifully complicated, ever-changing quiddity, and even the most decorated and prestigious wine experts in the world often find themselves confounded by its constant little surprises.
That isn't to say that, if you care to, you shouldn't become educated on the subject of wine. It's a hobby and a passion that's tremendously fun to pursue, and there's much to learn on the matter.
If you find yourself in the beginning stages of your wine education, just as in everything, you'll want to start with the basics. It's possible that up until now, you haven't put much thought into the several different kinds of wine there are, except for, say, red and white. But while there are obviously exceptions within every hard and fast rule, for the most part, wine can be broken down into roughly nine categories. Here we'll take a minute to break those categories down, explain what they mean, which wines fall into them, and, our favorite - how to drink those wines.

Sparkling wine

Read more
Sip these American Irish-style stout beers this St. Patrick’s Day
Great Irish-style stouts don't have to come from Ireland to be delicious
best american irish style stout beers left hand nitro

This year, why not put the Guinness down and reach for an American Irish-style stout for St. Patrick’s Day?
Okay, that does sound a tad ridiculous — and honestly, you can’t go wrong with Guinness at all — but American brewers are doing a heck of a job with their Irish-style stouts. 
Irish dry stouts are an awesomely simple style, brewed with roasted barley to give off qualities of coffee and chocolate while drying out the finish. Hops add a nice bitterness to balance it all out and it's often nice and thin for excellent drinkability. Generally low in alcohol content, these beers are surprisingly low in calories, too, and can be accentuated with a thick creaminess from nitrogen.
Like other beautifully simplistic beers, these smooth stouts are so often overlooked because big flavor is generally hot in craft beer. Big, boozy barrel-aged stouts and, now, sugary sweet pastry stouts are all the rage, so it's been tough for the American Irish-style stouts to gain any traction. Plus, Guinness was once often the only stout people knew about when there were essentially two beer styles in America: lager and stout. 
Never fear, however, with St. Patrick’s Day around the corner, Americans make darn good Irish-style stouts. Here are some of the best. (If you're more of a whiskey person, check out some of the best Irish whiskey.)

Left Hand Brewery Dry Irish Stout Nitro  

Read more