Laphroaig 1988-2020 - 32 Year Old - The Syndicates - Single Cask 9203

An iconic southern Islay distillery, Laphroaig is the benchmark for heavily-peated smoky single malt whisky. The distillery has been Islay’s most successful single malt for many decades now, so much so that in 1908, following a commercial dispute, White Horse’s Peter Mackie famously tried to create a copy of Laphroaig at Lagavulin, leading to the birth of Malt Mill.

Today, the most revered and sought-after Laphroaigs at auction fall broadly into two camps: the old official bottlings of Laphroaig 10-year-old from the late 1960s-1980s; and the extraordinary independent bottlings of 1960s and early 1970s vintages by Gordon & MacPhail, Signatory, Cadenhead’s and the Italian bottlers Samaroli and Intertrade. The common denominator in these legendary bottlings is a remarkably fruity character alongside the phenolic bombast - sadly this fruitiness is no longer found in Laphroaig’s modern distillate.

The Syndicate is a group of private individuals who have bottled a small but significant string of outstanding casks of Islay whisky in the last few decades. The Syndicate is believed to have been formed in the 1980s by former Bruichladdich chairman Sir John MacTaggart, a prominent Islay landowner and businessman, along with members of his family and several whisky industry figures.

The majority of The Syndicate’s infrequent bottlings have been Lagavulin, including a superb parcel of casks from the 1979 vintage that have been released at ages from 15 to 40 years old and include some of the greatest ever bottlings from the distillery. Other notable Syndicate whiskies have included several casks of Laphroaig 1998 and Caol Ila 1990, and the only non-Islay bottling - a 1990 Macallan released in 2010.