New Release: Laphroaig 2001-2016 15 Year Old Edition Spirits First Edition #12787 56.2%

After drinking three bottles, I have doubts about the cask numbers and specification labels... Laphroaig LAPHROAIG 2001-2016 15yo EDITION SPIRITS "THE First Editions" #12787 56.2% one of 270 bottles, REFILL HOGSHEAD The aroma has good sherry, plum jam, caramelized nuts, bitter chocolate, charred barley, rich, faintly polished skin, and a strong peat with seaweed-like iodine. When drinking, it spreads richly with bitter chocolate and caramel, apricot jam, a gradual barley umami, jam-like sweet richness, pleasant tannins, strong sulfuric elements, meaty richness, powerful peat with strong iodine, and a long finish. [Good/Very Good] Andrew Stewart, son of Hunter Laing's Stewart, established the bottler Edition Spirits. This is Laphroaig 2001, 15-year-old from their First Editions. Following the very delicious same specification #12387, a lighter-colored #12787 was released. Just after realizing there was no second eel (follow-up), surprisingly a third one appeared.(laughs) This time it's darker, and for some reason, the same cask number as the lighter-colored #12787. This is labeled as a refill hogshead, but the outturn is higher than the same-numbered batch. I'm not quite convinced. If the cask number was a copy-paste error during label creation, and if the previous lighter-colored one was refill bourbon hogshead, it would make sense in various ways... Regarding outturn, Hunter Laing sometimes fills by share, so it's now unclear. Anyway, the crucial thing is the content. With the same color as #12387 (the first eel), expectations are high. The aroma is quite similar, with good sherry notes. It also has a nuance of polished skin that's rarely felt in this specification, and the strong iodine peat typical of Laphroaig, making it rich and diverse. When drinking, it shows a rich spread. For a moment, expectations are very high, but there's quite a strong sulfuric element among the diverse components. If this sulfurous element weren't there, the chocolate and fruitiness would be diverse with umami, good balance between sweetness and astringency, and it would have been quite good. From experience, sulfurous elements can deepen over time. Perhaps in 20-30 years, when comparing to the excellent #12387, this might have been better... that would be nice.(laughs) #Laphroaig (LAPHROAIG)