Lagavulin 16 Year Old is truly a benchmark Islay whisky. It’s loved for its deep, earthy, and maritime character with rich notes of dried fruit, vanilla, and smokiness that comes from Islay peat but is more akin to Lapsang Souchong tea in profile.
Before Lagavulin 16, the distillery did have a 12-year-old single malt. But when Diageo launched the Classic Malt series in the 1980s, Lagavulin 16 Year Old was introduced and became the distillery's flagship bottling. It received a boost in popularity after featuring in Parks and Recreation as a favourite drink of Nick Offerman’s character Ron Swanson. Offerman has since collaborated with the distillery on several occasions.
If you're looking for a food pairing for this beauty, try intensely flavoured salty blue cheeses, which complement the intense, peat-rich, sweet and salty character of this Lagavulin wonderfully.
More like Lapsang Souchong tea than Lapsang Souchong! One of the smokiest noses from Islay. It's big, very, very concentrated, and redolent of iodine, sweet spices, good, mature Sherry and creamy vanilla. Stunning.
Very thick and rich. A massive mouthful of malt and Sherry with good fruity sweetness, but also a wonderful sweetness. Big, powerful peat and oak.
Long, spicy finish, figs, dates, peat smoke, vanilla.
Probabily, one of the better malt of Scotland. Superb. Peaty but with full body
This is the kind if whisky I stop drinking once my bottle is half empty and only enjoy again once I have a back up replacement. The thought of having to go thru life without a Lagavulin 16 on my whisky shelf is just to scary.
too much for me at this time...prefer Glenfiddich, Oban, Glenkichie etc.
Earthy, rich & smoky. Simply the best!
Peat smoke and iodine rise from the glass. Upon sipping, I first noticed the astringency, often compared to a good tea, then the massive malt backbone asserted itself. Despite its age the cask does not dominate the flavor. The peat smoke, iodine, malt, and cask all assert themselves then leave behind the iodine and a bit of phenolic resin, but not nearly as much as Laphroaig.
