Laphroaig 18 / Auchentoshan Three Wood / Lagavulin 16 

07 Dec 2012

Three more days, three more Scotches. Two of these I've had before (the Laphroaig 18 and Lagavulin 16), but this was a great opportunity to pay them a bit more attention and thought.

I've got a bottle of Laphroaig 10 at home that is sort of a great go-to Islay Scotch. It's smokey and peaty and when you taste it, you get all of those tastes, plus you can taste the salty sea water that surrounds the island where the whisky is made. It's rough around the edges, which makes it a great, flavorful Scotch. It's great.

The Laphroaig 18 has all of those same flavors, plus some sweetness, as it's mellowed in its older age. And that's sort of its downfall. It's a smoother whisky. When you smell it, it's much subtler—still smokey and peaty, but with more sugar on top. When you drink it, you get the same flavors as the 10 year, but they're rounded.

Everything is toned down.

For many people, that would make this an amazing Scotch.

For me, it makes it a bit of a let down. It's still really good, and very, very drinkable. But it's a rare case of me liking the younger sibling over the mature version.

Macallan is sort of everyone's intro Scotch. It's sweet, with lots of wine flavor. It's very drinkable (as I can attest from one very bad night). It's a great way to get into Scotch.

But, I think over time, some of those aspects are what make it less desirable. It's not a terribly distinctive Scotch. It can sometimes be cloyingly sweet. It lacks some of the wonderful earthiness of some of the Islay Scotches.

Auchentoshan Three Wood is a similar whisky to a Macallan. It's aged in a bourbon cask, and then two Spanish wine casks, to give it it's darker red color and sweeter, sherry scent. I was excited to try it, as it is very well reviewed, and I wondered if this might be the whisky that would be the Macallan for people who like rougher whisky.

It might be. I'm not sure.

I wonder if I'd gotten my hopes up a bit too much. It smells a bit like a Macallan, but with some smoke behind all the sweet. That was a great sign.

But the taste, at least the dram I had, was sort of a mish-mash. It was sweet, but not overly sweet. It had some normal peat and earth in the background, but not in a way that melded well together. I don't feel like I can do this justice—I liked it, but was underwhelmed, but I feel like I missed something. I'd like to try it again.

Consider the jury out.

Any Scotch endorsed by Ron Swanson has to be good, right?

Yes. It does.

And it is.

This is a great Scotch. It's an Islay (which seems to be a theme so far in this advent calendar, one I very much approve of)! It has the same big scents of the Laphroaig, but they're in the right balance. It's wonderful.

The taste is what you want out of a more mature Islay. You get the big peat and smoke, but not in an overpowering way (like an Ardbeg 10). It's perfectly balanced. There's some of the salty sea taste, but just enough. And finally, you can taste some of the floral/citrus that is sitting there.

It's an amazing Scotch.

Ron Swanson is right.