94 points
Laphroaig PX, I Love You 2005 Vintage Cask (No. 3), 54.4%
A single Pedro Ximénez hogshead yielded this whisky, which might be characterized as dramatic. Raisin, fig, grape skins, furniture polish, menthol tobacco, toasted wood, asphalt, and medicinal iodine on the nose. Chewy, robust, and rich on the palate, the peat keeps the cask’s sweetness in check, as raisin, orange marmalade, dark chocolate, fruit leather, hefty spice, roasted nuts, and oak vie with iodine, saline, and ash. Pepper slides into oak and tobacco on the finish, with dark-skinned fruit and menthol lingering. (Julio's Liquors exclusive; 288 bottles)
Reviewed by: Susannah Skiver Barton (Spring 2020)