This is a festival bottling from Laphroaig, which means that it’s a special limited edition expression that is released (and usually snapped up) at the annual festival at the distilleries. It’s worth noting that generally speaking, festival bottlings make for good collectable whisky.
In this case, this was the latest Feis Ile bottling, and it was made by combining a range of Laphroaig whisky from quarter casks, ranging between four and nine years old, and then putting them together in ex-Bourbon casks for another four years.
Cairdeas is pronounced ‘car-chase’ and is a Gaelic word meaning “friendship”.
We’ve both tried this one at the distillery – one of the only places you can still get your hands on it (though not the only place). Really impressive – similar to the Quarter Cask Laphroaig (recommended) and smoky like only a Laphroaig is smoky but with really a interesting aniseed/liquorice aspect to it.
We bought two for good measure – and haven’t yet decided whether we’re going to open one, or shelve both. Torn between a good investment and a great whisky.