Laphroaig "Excalibur", 15yo Hand Filled by José Massú

There's nothing better than visiting a great distillery, drawing a special measure from a cask, using the whisky thief like a sword to amuse people, and getting a good photo. This happened at Laphroaig. The thief was actually shaped like a sword, and I used it to draw a 15-year-old single malt matured in ex-bourbon and Manzanilla casks, at 53.3% ABV. I've named my own bottle "Laphroaig Excalibur." The nose is quite beautiful. Christmas cake, candied fruits. Chocolate dry cake, almonds, and lemongrass. Complexity is key here. BBQ sauce, fruitcake, coffee beans. The palate is heavily influenced by the Manzanilla sherry. Christmas cake, vanilla cake, candied fruits, candied beans, and sherry. The aftertaste is where the medicinal Laphroaig peat emerges. It smells like a pair of cotton socks; medicinal, cotton, and ginger. It has a note reminiscent of a fresh can of tennis balls, making it very Laphroaig-like. Overall, if you visit Laphroaig, you must bottle your own whisky. It's a very unique experience from one of Scotland's most distinctive single malts. This is a fantastic whisky that showed me how amazing this very peaty and medicinal malt can be when aged in sherry casks. An incredibly interesting dram, scoring 93 out of 100.