Just towards the end of the evening at Whisky Live, we were wondering how many more whiskies we wanted to sample (we didn’t want a repeat of the SMWS hangover as we both had sports games the next day). We realised at this point that we really couldn’t finish an event like this without having a Laphroaig and a Caol Ila - two Islay beauties that had to be a part of this evening.

Duncan had an 18 year old Caol Ila and I had a single cask Laphroaig of the same age. The Caol Ila was wonderful - less peaty than the standard expressions but a lot smoother. A real fireside whisky.

My Laphroaig, on the other hand, was a little disappointing. Whether it was something about that specific cask or a symptom of our tiring palates, we found it had a similar dodgy smell to the Black Bottle (a smell we haven’t managed to identify) and it really was something I would rate as ‘take it or leave it’. A shame, given that every other Laphroaig expression I have ever tasted has been right up there with my favourites.