DISTILLERY · ISLAY, SCOTLAND
Laphroaig Distillery
Iodine, smoke and sea spray from a white-washed village on the Kildalton coast.
Founded in 1815 by brothers Donald and Alexander Johnston, Laphroaig makes the most medicinal of the great Islay malts — iodine, tar and seaweed built on its own floor-malted, heavily peated barley. Owned by Suntory Global Spirits (the renamed Beam Suntory, since May 2024), it still cuts peat from its own banks and has held a Royal Warrant since 1994.
THE SHORT ANSWER · BEST LAPHROAIG, JULY 2026
Three bottles to know first.
Picked by our editors, not by ad spend
BEST OVERALL
Laphroaig 10
Iodine, peat smoke and seaweed — the unchanged blueprint of medicinal Islay.
91 / 100 · FROM $55
BEST VALUE
Quarter Cask
Quarter-size casks double the oak — sweeter, thicker smoke at a fair price.
88 / 100 · $65
REVIEW COMING SOON
THE UPGRADE
Laphroaig Lore
The self-styled 'richest of the rich' — sooty, sherried and deep.
90 / 100 · $140
REVIEW COMING SOON
THE LAPHROAIG RANGE
One village, six bottlings.
Same iodine peat — different casks, ages and strengths
Laphroaig 10
core range · flagship
The blueprint: iodine, smoke and seaweed, barely changed in a century.
Quarter Cask
core · small casks
Quarter-size casks double the oak contact — sweeter, thicker smoke.
1 bottle →
10 Year Cask Strength
annual batch · full proof
The 10 with the volume turned up — batch-released at barrel strength.
1 bottle →
Lore
core · multi-cask NAS
Five cask types, ages up to 21 years — the richest Laphroaig.
1 bottle →
Càirdeas
annual · fèis ìle release
The Friends-of-Laphroaig bottling — a new cask experiment every year.
collector path →
Laphroaig 25
prestige · annual release
Old Laphroaig: the smoke faded to embers, brine and old oak.
collector path →
LAPHROAIG BOTTLES · REVIEWED & RANKED
The bottles.
scored / 100 · prices checked july 2026
| Rank | Bottle | Note | Score | Price | Review |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 10 Year Cask Strengthislay-single-malt · annual batch | The 10 at full throttle — the converted's pick. | 92SCORE | $90 | COMING SOON |
| 02 | Laphroaig 10islay-single-malt · 10 yrs | Iodine, smoke and seaweed — the reference point. | 91SCORE | $55 | READ REVIEW → |
| 03 | Loreislay-single-malt · multi-cask NAS | Sooty, sherried and deep — the richest of the house. | 90SCORE | $140 | COMING SOON |
| 04 | Quarter Caskislay-single-malt · small oak | Double oak contact, thicker sweetness — value smoke. | 88SCORE | $65 | COMING SOON |
| 05 | Selectislay-single-malt · NAS entry | The gentlest Laphroaig — a hedged introduction. | 84SCORE | $45 | COMING SOON |
LAPHROAIG — THE STORY
The hollow by the big bay.
Brothers Donald and Alexander Johnston founded Laphroaig in 1815 on the Kildalton coast — the name is usually read as 'hollow of the big bay.' By the 1950s it was run by Bessie Williamson, the secretary-turned-owner often credited as the first woman to manage a Scotch distillery in the modern era, who fixed the style and sold America on the smoke.
The medicinal edge is home-made: Laphroaig still floor-malts part of its own barley and cold-smokes it over peat cut from its own banks. After decades under Allied and then Fortune Brands, the distillery passed to Beam in 2005 and sits today with Suntory Global Spirits — which filed plans to expand the site in 2024 and now runs Laphroaig and Bowmore as one Islay team.
Answered by Niall Connolly · The Atlantic Seat
i.Who owns Laphroaig?
Suntory Global Spirits — the Japanese-owned house renamed from Beam Suntory in May 2024. The manager on the ground is an Ileach: George Campbell, who took over on 1 October 2024, and since early 2026 Suntory has run Laphroaig and Bowmore under a single Islay team.
ii.Which Laphroaig should I buy first?
The 10 (~$55, our 91) is the whole argument in one glass. Already love peat? The Quarter Cask (~$65) is thicker and sweeter, and the annual 10 Cask Strength (~$90) is the enthusiast's endgame.
iii.Why does Laphroaig taste medicinal?
Its own floor-malted barley is cold-smoked over Laphroaig's peat — mossy, rooty stuff that gives iodine and TCP phenols the other Islay houses don't quite match. During US Prohibition that 'medicinal' character reportedly let it sell legally as medicine.
iv.What is a Friend of Laphroaig?
Register a bottle and the distillery grants you a lifetime lease on a numbered square foot of Islay — visit and you can plant a flag on it and claim a dram of 'rent.' The programme has run since 1994 and counts over a million Friends.
v.Can we send you our whiskey?
Yes — and it's the only way to earn a Superior Rating. Distilleries are welcome to send bottles for the full panel: two per expression, one decanted into blind samples for the three of us, one sealed on file. All three seats taste it blind and the scores are averaged. Sending buys three honest opinions and nothing else — nobody sees a score before publication.