Thanks to a Friends of Laphroiag email and a call from a good friend, I headed over to The Libertine Bar after work for a Laphroaig tasting, featuring the 2011 Cairdeas bottling. I was quite a bit early, but enjoyed a Hop Devil and some of their muenster fries while I waited. Rick and Gloria arrived a little later and we settled in to wait for the tasting to start. Simon Brooking, the Laphroaig ambassador arrived around 7:30 and got started after getting a quick bite to eat. He read a little Gaelic poetry, lit some peat, and then started the tasting. Our first sample was the 10 year, what I consider to be the quintessential Laphroaig whisky. After that, we got to try some of the new quarter cask. That was an experience! I’ve got a bottle that I haven’t opened yet, and am now itching to give it a go. At some point a cheese board showed up at our table, so we had something to cleanse our palates with before going on to the last whisky, the Cairdeas. It was similar to the quarter cask, but with some stronger, sweeter notes. Very, very good. We got a chance to talk to Simon for a while and I got a picture taken with him. His assistant, one of the Beam representatives, set aside a couple bottles at one of the local liquor stores, so we’ll be heading out tomorrow to pick them up. This was a really fun night, and I’ll be sure to not miss another tasting. It was definitely worth the drive and time.