Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength Batch 007 Whisky Review!

The famous 'James Bond' batch of Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength, one of the best recent batches, and in my opinion, a future classic. 

Well, recent-ish. Batch 007 was bottled back in 2015, and the world has certainly changed in the half-decade since! 2015 was Laphroaig's 200th anniversary, and a number of special bottlings were released in celebration of that major milestone. There was the re-release of the 15-year old, the absolutely epic 32-year old sherry matured, and a very special and very brilliant Cairdeas (the annual Friends of Laphroaig bottling) that was distilled only from the distillery's own floor-malted barley, distilled only in their older & smaller stills, and matured in their famous No.1 warehouse right by the sea. 2015 was also when Australia last played host to Distillery Manager John Campbell, who I was lucky enough to interview here thanks to the efforts of former National Brand Ambassador Dan Woolley - who has since launched his own Australian whisky brand Highwayman. So in the midst of all of that activity it would've been easy to forget the poor-old 10-year old Cask Strength that was released in that same year. In fact this particular expression of Laphroaig, along with the awesome and much easier to find 12-year old Cask Strength Lagavulin, does generally tend to sit in the shadows compared to some more noisy releases - that situation is not helped by its availability, though. Batch 007 followed the same cask recipe as the previous batches, being fully matured in first-fill ex-bourbon casks, as is tradition for this expression. It was bottled at a relatively low 56.3% ABV, and aside from a small change on the cardboard outer tube where it carried a small '200 Years of Laphroaig' badge, the packaging was unchanged from the rest of the releases. But this whisky was certainly not easy to forget once you had tasted it - I think Batch 007 will go down as one of the best releases of the 10-year old Cask Strength in the series of numbered batches that kicked off back in 2009. If you're a fan of this style of big, bold Islay whisky, it'll leave you stirred; while if you're not, it'll certainly leave you shaken!

Despite tasting it a few times since release it's taken me a while to get around to reviewing this one, although on reflection that five years has gone by quite quickly - maybe with the exception of the last six months! The opportunity came around again when a mate brought his bottle along to a recent session, and I wasn't going to argue when he suggested that I take a sample to review and plug that little gap - maybe we do 'only' live twice? Now, I know I've said it before, in fact I think I've more-than mentioned it every time I've reviewed one of these cask strength Laphroaigs, but I may as well reiterate while we're here: it's a crying shame that this whisky is not officially imported into Australia. The only official way to get it over the oceans is to either order it directly from the distillery shop - which then incurs a 50-pound shipping charge, and then the local customs charges, duty, GST, and courier fees. That all adds up to one expensive bottle of whisky, since thanks to our excise rates that are some of the highest in the world you'll seldom get change from $250 AUD when it finally lands on your doorstep. And that's for a whisky that costs just $110 from the distillery shop itself, including the local VAT. And to reiterate again, those in the United States are spoiled with large amounts of this liquid, in 750ml bottles no less, often selling for even less than that. The other way of course is to buy yourself a bottle from overseas auction, where you can combine the shipping with multiple other bottles, but you'll still be hit with the same customs charges and courier fees, along with a buyer's premium. So it's still not a cheap proposition. 

If Laphroaig / Coca Cola / Beam Suntory could get this whisky on the Australian shelves for anywhere south of $200 AUD, even in small quantities, it would sell like hotcakes - as the aforementioned Lagavulin does every year it's imported. They could even save some of the often-unappreciated bottles, that are destined to sit on American shelves for years, from their purgatorial fate. So why don't they do it? I can't answer that, and we can't expect them to talk, either. Maybe Dr. No is hiding it all in a cave somewhere, but the chances of this happening are dwindling away as each year's release continues to tragically pass us by. Unfortunately, the same goes for the annual Cairdeas release, which was last officially imported way back in 2014. Please hear me, higher-ups - we want and need these higher strength Laphroaigs imported into Australia. You're being left behind by your competitors, and it's about time you caught up! 

Right, time to live & let die, let's drown our tears in a dram of Batch 007. As mentioned above it followed the so far-unbroken tradition of being matured in ex-bourbon casks, and was bottled at a cask strength of 56.3% in January 2015. It's also non-chill filtered and is barrier-filtered only, so if we ignore the fact that there is no mention of colouring on these releases - I'll resist the temptation to add a Goldfinger reference there - it's just about as unadulterated as official bottlings can get. Let's see what Q has rustled up this time...

Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength Batch 007, 56.3%. Islay, Scotland.

Matured in ex-bourbon casks, bottled 2015, the year of Laphroaig's 200th anniversary. Non-chill filtered, colouring unknown.

Colour: Amber. Possibly natural. 

Nose: Clean (well, relatively), sweet and coastal. Tar, sweet tobacco & liquorice, cold brine and damp volcanic rock. Lots of cold ash and a few pine needles, plus a couple of old bandages. Soft & dry earthy peat, chewy vanilla fudge and dried citrus - lemon and grapefruit. 

Texture: Medium weight, but builds quickly. Rich & oily, but gentle and inviting (again, relatively!). Sweet, peaty and mineralic. No heat. 

Taste: Sweet and chewy vanilla fudge, dry, soft earthy peat and some red chilli oil. More piles of cold ash and chilled brine. If I was going to wax lyrical, I'd say a burnt-out bonfire on a cold, windy beach... A little salted slightly bitter liquorice, dried grapefruit and lemon peel. A few old bandages and a touch of iodine. 

Finish: Long length. Warming with more chilli oil, cold ash and brine, a little drying kelp (seaweed) and salted honeycomb. Lemon again, dry earthy peat, and drying salt. Some damp rock-like minerality again, like oily whetstones (sharpening stones). 

Score: 4.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Beautiful. It's a softer, sweeter style of Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength, but it's no less rich and certainly no less delicious. It could be less divisive than some of the more aggressive higher-strength Laphroaigs can be, but again, it's lost nothing in the process. Many of the more senior whisky geeks talk fondly about the Laphroaig of yesteryear that was sweeter, less peaty and more fruity, and this Batch 007 would have to be close to that style. And if it is, then I get it! It's a citrusy, sweeter and less aggressive Laphroaig that is difficult to put down once poured. 

These yearly batches of '10CS' Laphroaig do vary quite a bit, and quite dramatically in some cases, but this 007 would have to be one of the better of the softer style - and it's almost a polar opposite of its predecessor, 006, and is closer to the most recent batch that I've tried, 2019's batch 011, although it's still more gentle and less aggressive, less "in your face" and less 'dirty' in style. I still say this one is a future classic, and I'm glad to have one squirreled away for future enjoyment!

Cheers!