I was down to my buddy's house in the Eau Claire, WI area for his birthday, plus, prototyping our skin on frame kayak kit. All three of us being leaseholders at the Laphroaig distillery, we decided to have a single malt tasting with the Islay whisky that we had on hand.

Unfortunately, no kilts involved, just great single malt. We had Laphroaig 10 year old, Bowmore Legend, and McClelland's Islay. Someone can correct me if I'm mistaken, but I think McClelland's is made at the Bowmore distillery.

We downloaded the Tasting Pack from the Laphroaig website and used that as the guide for our tasting.

I was hoping to post my tasting notes, but wasn't able to find them in the mess of papers from that week. What I can remember is that all three had almost identical color. But that was the only rating that they tied on.

No big surprise. The Laphroaig came up on the winning end. McClelland's beat Bowmore on all three of our tasting notes, which surprised me, as McClelland's is an off-brand. Of course, McClelland's also beats Bowmore on price, which is a nice plus.


Mark's birthday - toasting the array of single malts.


Testing the Palate.


Checking my palate.