Laphroaig 1967 Samaroli 15 Year Old Sherry Wood / Silver Cap Natural Strength Islay Malt Scotch Whisky ABV 57% Vol 75cl / 750ml

DESCRIPTION

The Laphroaig 1967 Samaroli is is an example of two heavyweights of the whisky world at the very top of their game. The 1960's was a golden era in production for many Islay distilleries, with the south-east coast's Laphroaig no exception. Today it is one of the few remaining Scottish distilleries with its own in-house malting floor, and this vintage dates to the time when this provided 100% of the malt they used. Modern Laphroaig uses only a small percentage of its own malt, the rest sourced from Port Ellen, making this a truly pure example of what the distillery can produce, and a rare one at that.

While it takes a great distillery to produce a legendary whisky, it equally requires a keen eye, mind and palate to select the right cask, and Samaroli had all of these in spades. Renowned for hand-selecting his own barrels, this one was bottled by the man, widely regarded as a visionary, at the moment his raw talent was crystallising into something spectacular. He released his first bottles in 1979, followed by the acclaimed Flowers series in 1981. Then, just a year later as Samaroli was riding the crest of a wave of excitement and approval, came this, the Laphroaig 1967. The perfect moment. The perfect whisky.

Tasting Note By Whiskyfun.com (December 6, 2007)

Colour: mahogany.

Nose: even more of everything plus a fantabulously chocolaty and smoky sherry. I’m sorry, the rest will be censored by the anti-maltoporn brigade.

Mouth: my god. Finish: my god. Comments: this is why we’re into whisky. We’re approaching perfection here. By the way, did you know the joke about this guy who wanted to cook a turkey with whisky and who............ SGP:878 – 98 points.

Tasting Note By Whiskyfun.com (Mar 23, 2022)

Some would add 'with Distillery drawing' to the description. I have this baby at WF 98 in my list, a rather solid score since I've already tried it a few times. But yeah, I never really wrote any decent tasting notes… By the way, we never mention prices (that would be vulgar) but I've seen on Whiskybase that it's now going for north of 60,000€ a bottle. Cra-zy.

Colour: golden amber.

Nose: wandering throughout an eucalyptus forest very close to the sea, in the midst of summer, while drinking Yquem 1900 (like) and smoking a perfectly taken care of pre-Fidel double-corona. More after I've added a drop of water…

With water: earths. All kinds of earths, especially very rich compost-like earths they use for growing the most precious flowers. Quite some dried kelp too, while walking on the beach at low tide. 

Mouth (neat): just insane. The definition of utter perfection in whisky, starting with artisanal thin mints, going on with all raisins and honeys of the creation, then abandoning itself to the arms (what?) of thousands of different fruits, berries, herbs, flowers and spices. Now we won't list those or this would start to look like a dictionary and we'd be here for the rest of the day, including the night. But what a glorious list that would be!

With water: it's incredible how it would take water. Every percent will add different flavours, going from a rather piney and mentholy smoky profile to luscious jams and dried fruits covered with honey and spices (saffron upfront). And then it would just silence you (I can hear you, who said 'great news'?) Finish: some other whiskies, including some other Laphroaigs, are even longer but this very one's extremely gracious, with even a wee mentholated freshness in the end. Comments: it leaves you breathless. Personal score unchanged. Thinking of Ukraine.
SGP:675 - 98 points.

Tasting Note By Whiskyfun.com (Angus August 6, 2022)

Colour: Mahogany.

Nose: The most astonishing combination of medical tinctures, old hardwood shavings, myriad dark, stewed and tropical fruits and rich seam of wet earth, hessian, crushed walnuts, aged tar liqueur and pomegranate syrup. A totally and utterly spellbinding aroma at first nosing. Background aromas of still-warm coal hearths, aged stout and a saline inflected dunnage note with damp sack cloth and hessian. Quite bewilderingly complex, the kind of nose you can - and should - lose yourself in utterly for hours. With a little more time develops some more precise notes of green fruits, grapefruit and ripe blood orange. There really are just all kinds of aromas: myriad spices; dark chocolate; ancient balsamico - and of course I haven't even mentioned the peat yet.

Pure, brilliant, earthy, fat, almost visceral peat. The earthy quality almost goes into aged Pinot Noir territory. It's a hard to fathom the complexity of this nose. Wrapped around everything is the most pristinely earthy, farmy and enveloping sherry.

With Water: More tar, more salt, more roof pitch, more flints, more distillate character! The green fruits and the tropical fruits really go to war now in the most spectacular fashion. In the end the tropical side wins - deft notes of passionfruit, pineapple and guava all mingle together. Seashore, warm brown bread, iodine and various medical tinctures. Endless...

Mouth: The most intense, jelly-like density of syrupy, perfectly balanced sherry, dynamic peat, coal, earth, farmyard and a litany of tropical fruit. Astonishing whisky! Utterly, utterly majestic. The sherry and the peat are perfectly integrated and you have this kind of poised, focused dryness about the whole thing. Engine oil and seaweed and tar and rope all mingle. Tropical fruits still rolling around between everything. The palate feels more distillate driven than the nose which felt more dominated by the cask. The overall effect though is a perfect union of the two which comes across as even greater than the sum of its parts.

With water: Not sure how it's possible but the whisky has become bigger, fatter and broader. A total masterpiece. A canvas of broad strokes and infinitesimal detail in between. Kippery, smouldering beach wood, mineral aspects, some citrus emerges, more coal hearths, tea tree oil, peat oils, more tar, more hessian, more dark, unctuous sherry fruit. More of everything! Finish: A vast spectrum of oily peat extracts, ancient sherry, rancio, various fruits and pitch black coffee. The darkest chocolate, simmering phenols, a whole NHS of medicines. A nervous, lithe, shimmering dance of flavours on slow fade. Comments: some whiskies, for all sorts of reasons, are powerfully moving but perhaps not as spellbinding on a technical level, which can give you pause for thought when trying to sum them up in a tasting note with a score attached. This, however, is one of those hyper-rarities where the technical brilliance and emotional intensity are so perfectly synchronised that it leaves no space in your mind for doubt. You cannot come away from this with any impression other than that you just tasted one of the greatest whiskies ever committed to glass. There is a melancholy about this whisky given that it is increasingly unlikely the dwindling number of bottles that remain will be opened. Indeed, the prices these fetch now make them more the stuff of wealth signalling and not really about whisky enthusiasm or culture anymore. All I can say is, I am glad to have been able to taste it.
SGP: 776 - 98 points.

PRODUCT SUMMARY