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.
i’m a teetotaller, I am not a big fan of alcohol.. but.. This whisky can turns me to alcoholic. i can’t resist when i see it in front me.. like dangling a piece of chocolate in front of a child face. i like it to drink it anytime anywhere .. before i sleep, mid day and when i wake up in the morning .. Ohh you bloody lagavulin!
Like an angel peeing on your tongue.
Smoky sweet Islay gem. This whisky is an explosion of complex flavor that shows its maturity in nose and palette . Definitely my go to dram by the fire with a cubano sidemate.
Delicious.
Yes it’s got worse over the years, but it’s still a fine, fine whisky. More depth and character than other entry level Islay whisky. Very little smoke but more flavours. If I drink a laphroaig 10 I feel like a dirty, homeless, uneducated imbecile.... if I drink a lagavulin 16 I feel like an Earl of an English shire. Just more alcohol by volume please Diageo.
