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.
Hmmm...ok. The positives. It’s a nice dram. Smokey, dried fruits with a hint of salt. Worth a try. Negatives? Well. I just wish Diageo were as good at making a quality whisky as they are at marketing it. Getting someone as cool and manly as Ron Swanson to endorse your product is a stroke of genius because that’s all this dram has over other islays. It’s over priced! £49 in the UK. Packed with E150 which is strange as you would have thought that a 16 year old would have obtained enough colour from the barrels. It’s chill filtered which I’m sure is fine for those who like adding ice in their whisky. Theirs better whiskies out there and better Islay’s. Ardbeg is a better drink. No chill filtered no E150. (It’s a pretty pale colour) I find it more smokey and more complex. In short: it’s a nice dram, but it’s time to try something different and something better! Forget the marketing, it’s time to tell Diageo to get Lagavulin back to the better quality whisky it used to be.
Such an exquisite blend of sophistication and romantic roughness that each mouthful practically takes your breath away.
I just finished a bottle and I want to cry. I bought a Laphroig 10 as it was on special offer and it just doesn't cut the mustard, the smoke's there but not the rest of it, and the mouth-feel is pathetic by comparison. I'm not going to pretend I'm some whisky buff, I can't tell you what it is about this that I love so much about this whisky, but it's pretty much perfect for me.
Probably my favorite whiskey ever and I’m normally a bourbon drinker. So weird and delicious.
For a whisky that is chill filtered and color added, I still haven't found a better dram in the 16 year old range that is otherwise more impacting on nose and pallate. It is so well balanced with smoke and sweetness that you begin to salivate witha simple nosing. Would love to see this whisky at a higher abv for the money.
