Laphroaig 10 Years Old (Older German Bottling)

A hay-like dryness and a thread of tobacco set this older German-market 10 apart from the bright modern release, the kind of secondary character that decades in glass can bring. Underneath, the medicinal Laphroaig core holds firm.

Laphroaig's heavily peated malt, dried over Islay peat at the distillery near Port Ellen, gives the smoke; ten years in ex-Bourbon give the vanilla and an oily weight.

At 40% the peat reads medicinal and tarry, with the hay and tobacco lifting over an oily, smoky base. A snapshot of the 10 as it was bottled for Germany years ago.