Laphroaig® Càirdeas 30 year old single malt is here!

[John McGill]

The Cairdeas 30 is now available on the friends site.

Blurb from the email:

Ever since the first tasting at our Laphroaig® Live broadcast in June I have (understandably) been bombarded by requests as to when Càirdeas 30 year old will become available. Well the wait is over! You will recall that at the time we announced that it will never be available in any retail shops. This is indeed the case, it is only available online (and at the distillery of course).The standard price is £500 but to all Friends of Laphroaig it will be £450 in your private on line shop.
Each bottle is individually numbered and every Friend of Laphroaig purchasing a bottle will get a certificate of ownership signed by myself.
History of Càirdeas 30 year Old

It may come as a surprise to many but the standard Laphroaig 30 year old has in fact only been available for 10 years. However, from the very first year it has been winning top awards world wide, and in this short period it has won no less than 12 Gold medals, including two double Gold's. Sadly our stocks are now completely depleted - you may have noticed that it has not been in the shops for a while.

However we kept a small amount back for a very special farewell -for you!
Càirdeas 30 year old

Robert Hicks, our master blender, wanted to send off the 30 year old on the highest possible note. To achieve this he gave the spirit a second maturation in fresh, first fill, Bourbon Barrels from our finest supplier, Maker's Mark. This imbues Càirdeas 30 with the smoothest, longest finish imaginable.

To buy now please go to http://www.laphroaig.com/cairdeas.
There are 1,330 bottles available online. I know from all your enquiries that many of you will want to buy it now to ensure you have this piece of Laphroaig history. However, I hope that Càirdeas 30 sells out over a greater period of time as I know that some of you would rather buy it for special occasions in the future

[Deactivated Member]

this must be the first bourbon finished sherried whisky I have heard of.

[les taylor]

You do get a certificate with it though. Dig deep guys. I don't see a rush for this one.

[Knolly]

This is going to sound really cynical and I'm sure that this new Laphroaig is a great whisky, but wow - 450 to 500 pounds for a bottle? That's the same price as the 27YO was last year! What am I missing here?

I bought stock of regular Laphroaig 30 earlier this year - I know that this past year the pricing in North America is much lower than it's been in Europe, but when "regular" Laphroaig 30 is still available for $240 - $300 USD, it seems to me like a bit of a cash grab to "hold back a bit" and release it for almost four times the cost that it was originally sold at!

Sure, I know is has an extra finish: wow - it must be amazing!



Anyway... I LOVE Lahproaig and am well into a bottle of L15 that I only cracked two days ago, but this is just really expensive and "limited" for the sake of being - well - really expensive and limited! Please tell me I'm missing something...

[peat-chaser]

450 GBP ??? That´s no price, it´s a joke!!
But not a good one.

If you got friends like this, you need no foes .....

[corbuso]

This is going to sound really cynical and I'm sure that this new Laphroaig is a great whisky, but wow - 450 to 500 pounds for a bottle? That's the same price as the 27YO was last year! What am I missing here?

I bought stock of regular Laphroaig 30 earlier this year - I know that this past year the pricing in North America is much lower than it's been in Europe, but when "regular" Laphroaig 30 is still available for $240 - $300 USD, it seems to me like a bit of a cash grab to "hold back a bit" and release it for almost four times the cost that it was originally sold at!

Sure, I know is has an extra finish: wow - it must be amazing!

And in addition, it is not bottled at cask strength. I still have to publish my tasting note for that Cardeas, but the bourbon finish gives to the whisky some extra vanilla flavours. Does it really enhanced the quality of this whisky? Not sure, but in any case, this is a very good Laphroaig, quite different from the old 30 YO. The old 30 was mainly made with refill sherry, so it was a bit more subtle. This Cardeas is slightly more intense, with a more pronouced sherry influence. Quite different from the old 30 YO, but the difference in price is not justified.
When I talked last year to Peter Campbell about the old stocks, he mentioned that the oldest cask owned by Laphroaig was 23 YO. For the 27 YO, they had to buy back cask, and I think this is the same story with that 30 YO, explaining the price tag (and probably they want to earn more money on the bottle than on the old 30 YO)...

Corbuso
............
http://www.whisky-news.com

[Willie JJ]

When I talked last year to Peter Campbell about the old stocks, he mentioned that the oldest cask owned by Laphroaig was 23 YO. For the 27 YO, they had to buy back cask, and I think this is the same story with that 30 YO, explaining the price tag (and probably they want to earn more money on the bottle than on the old 30 YO)...

This seems quite a bizarre practice. For a Friends bottling why not just give us a 20yo at a decent price? I'm sure we'd all be much happier.

[Knolly]

And in addition, it is not bottled at cask strength. I still have to publish my tasting note for that Cardeas, but the bourbon finish gives to the whisky some extra vanilla flavours. Does it really enhanced the quality of this whisky? Not sure, but in any case, this is a very good Laphroaig, quite different from the old 30 YO. The old 30 was mainly made with refill sherry, so it was a bit more subtle. This Cardeas is slightly more intense, with a more pronouced sherry influence. Quite different from the old 30 YO, but the difference in price is not justified.
When I talked last year to Peter Campbell about the old stocks, he mentioned that the oldest cask owned by Laphroaig was 23 YO. For the 27 YO, they had to buy back cask, and I think this is the same story with that 30 YO, explaining the price tag (and probably they want to earn more money on the bottle than on the old 30 YO)...

Corbuso
............
http://www.whisky-news.com

Ya, this is my biggest pet peave with Lahproaig: it just seems that the ABv is low in general.

A couple months ago, I was bored, the wife was away and I had a rare evening to myself. I decided to play the "what order should I drink all the common Islay whiskies in" game. I grabbed about 8 or nine different bottles from the big 3 (didn't include any Bruichladdich 3D or PC).

The bottles were:
Laphroaig 10
Laphroaig CS
Laphroaig QC
Ardbeg Ten
Ardbeg Oogie
Lagavulin 12 CS
Lagavulin 16
Lagavulin DE PX

(yes, it was a fun game

The goal was to find out which order I should drink these in so that i wouldn't blow out the next whisky. What happened was interesting and that is that I ended up having to start with L10 every time. i figured that Laphroaig - being so "strong" taste wise - would be best tasted later on. however, i think the low ABV of the L10 was the culprit because if i had either the Ardbeg Ten or the Laga 16 before hand, the L10 was completely washed out. Too bad - would be awesome for regular Laphroaig to come at a bit higher ABV like 46 or 48%. Oh well - seems they're short on stock and are finding ways to get the prices up.

Any news on what's going to happen to the L15? I really like this and think that i should probably stock a few extra bottles of this if it's going to disappear.

Cheers!

[LagaDrinker]

There is no way I can afford this but good luck to the rest of you

[r900p]

I bet Knolly was after that, if you were still standing at the end then

I'll be leaving it too.

Rob

[Knolly]

I bet Knolly was after that, if you were still standing at the end then

I'll be leaving it too.

Rob

I was a good night - yes - but I'm not sure that i remember sorting out the final order!

I think it needs further experimenting and I'll add the Bruichladdichs in as well

[enzot]

Morning


Can anyone help with some more information about the 30 Y.O Cairdeas.
Does anyone know how long the second maturation in the first fill
Bourbon barrels was for ?
Also I take it the 30 Y.O Cairdeas is actually more than 30 Y.O.
With 1536 bottles how many barrels were used...5-6?

Thanks
Enzo...