Madeira is a Portugeuse fortified wine that, like Port, comes in dry, semi-dry\/sweet and sweet forms. What’s different about Madeira is the “Estufagem” process of cask maturation – a special heat and moisture treatment that is meant to replicate the historical journey of Madeira casks in the early days of seafaring trade. By law, this now involves cooking the wine at 55\u00b0C for at least 90 days (but see comments from Jason Hambrey below<\/em>). This accelerated aging of the wine has the side effect of also impregnating the wood staves of the casks with a lot of spiciness and fruit flavours. As a result, most would consider Madeira cask-aged whiskies to be sweet and fruity, regardless of the source form of Madeira used.<\/p>\n Bottled at an impressive 51.2% ABV, this limited edition Laphroaig is quite reasonably priced at $100 CAD at the LCBO (I got mine early, before they all disappeared).<\/p>\n Here is how the various Cairdeas expressions compare to each other, and the standard Laphroaigs, in my Meta-Critic Database:<\/p>\n Laphroaig 10yo: 8.87 \u00b1 0.24 on 20 reviews ($$$) Perhaps not surprisingly, the 2016 Madeira-finished Laphroaig has a similar average score (and variance) as the 2013 Port-finished edition. Average scores for these special bottlings are toward the higher end of the range of Laphroaigs in this price range.<\/p>\n Here’s what I find in the glass:<\/p>\n Colour<\/strong>: Definitely a wine-cask finish, with a lot red hues (though otherwise light).<\/p>\n Nose<\/strong>: Sweet, with some of the classic Laphroaig peat reek buried below the fruit (pear, apricot and a bit of cherry and raspberry). A bit citrusy too. Vanilla. Not as medicinal as I would have expected for a Laphroaig (seems to be overwhelmed by the fruit). A touch floral (herbal?). With water, caramel joins the vanilla.<\/p>\n Palate<\/strong>: Not as fruity, except in a general light fruit and citrus sense (fruit seems mainly on the nose). Honey.\u00a0 Butterscotch. Spicy notes, with black pepper. Briny, like salted cod. A touch of wet cardboard. Slightly creamy texture (nice mouthfeel, actually). With water, the oakiness picks up, as well as the sweetness. Caramel and brown sugar are added to the mix.<\/p>\n I must admit, this is a bit of strange one. Not sure how much demand there is for a such a sweetened Laphroaig. Honestly, I wouldn’t have pegged this as a Laphroaig at all, until that finish settled in. I suspect it would appeal more to a classic Lagavulin 16 drinker. Those looking for a medicinal peat bomb will likely be disappointed. But I kind of like it (possibly because I’m not a heavy peat fan, as you might have guessed).<\/p>\n The highest score I’ve seen for this expression comes from Josh the Whiskey Jug<\/a>. Also very positive are Serge of Whisky Fun<\/a>, My Annoying Opinions<\/a>, Andre and Patrick of Quebec Whisky<\/a>, and Thomas of Whisky Saga<\/a>. A more average score comes from Nathan the Scotch Noob<\/a>. The only really low score I’ve seen comes from Dave of Whisky Advocate<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" C\u00e0irdeas means friendship in Gaelic, and this is the name given to an annual special release associated with the Friends of Laphroaig. Pronunciation is a bit trickier than usual on this one, as I’ve heard everything for car-chus to care-chase (to kier-das to cord-dis, etc.). I guess it depends on where exactly you are from. Released annually at\u00a0F\u00e8is \u00ccle –<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[43,18,80,17],"class_list":["post-2944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whiskies","tag-laphroaig","tag-nas","tag-peated","tag-single-malt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2944"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4099,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2944\/revisions\/4099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nLaphroaig 10yo Cask Strength: 8.96 \u00b1 0.35 on 19 reviews ($$$$)
\nLaphroaig 15yo (200th Anniversary): 8.80 \u00b1 0.29 on 15 reviews ($$$$)
\nLaphroaig An Cuan Mor: 8.87 \u00b1 0.14 on 11 reviews ($$$$)
\nLaphroaig Cairdeas 2013 Port Wood: 8.83 \u00b1 0.46 on 12 reviews ($$$$)
\nLaphroaig Cairdeas 2014 Amontillado: 8.95 \u00b1 0.22 on 9 reviews ($$$$)
\nLaphroaig Cairdeas 2015: 9.16 \u00b1 0.17 on 7 reviews ($$$$)
\nLaphroaig Cairdeas 2016 Madeira: 8.83 \u00b1 0.42 on 11 reviews ($$$$)<\/strong>
\nLaphroaig Lore: 8.62 \u00b1 0.32 on 15 reviews ($$$$$)
\nLaphroaig PX Triple Matured: 8.81 \u00b1 0.57 on 12 reviews ($$$$)
\nLaphroaig QA Cask: 7.27 \u00b1 0.56 on 9 reviews ($$$)
\nLaphroaig Quarter Cask: 8.31 \u00b1 0.26 on 21 reviews ($$$$)
\nLaphroaig Select: 8.04 \u00b1 0.36 on 13 reviews ($$$)
\nLaphroaig Triple Wood: 8.70 \u00b1 0.34 on 17 reviews ($$$$)<\/p>\n![\"Laphroaig.Cairdeas.2016\"](\"http:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Laphroaig.Cairdeas.2016.jpg\")
Finish<\/strong>: Long. Sweet peat again, like the nose. Smoke lingers, as well as some ash. The classic Laphroaig medicinal notes finally poke through, along with a slight sourness. But the sweetness lasts the longest (surprisingly).<\/p>\n