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.
Strong, smokey and peppery. Just the way Tony Stark and RDJ likes it. No wonder Tony chose this as the Scotch brand of his choice. I shared this with several friends of mine after endgame to celebrate 10 years of Avengers and the Infinity Saga and I can confess this is one hell of a scotch to toast to
A lovely deep flavour that rolls all the way into the deep smoke that the nose promises. An incredibly decent whisky to sink back with at the end of a long day, I'm not saving this for special occasions I am keeping this one close at hand.
I like my scotch chilled with an ice ball, not fancy metal bearings. I feel the little water that gets to the scotch changes the flavor a touch. Without the ice I get more of the iodine sharpness, I’m fine with this. Pour it over an ice ball and it becomes a little something else. Still Smokey, very much so, but a mellow oak-ness that sits with the palate for a good while after the initial taste. It is my go to scotch. If you like a fine cigar or pipe without the doctor yelling at you, this scotch is for you.
For Islay malt, I like Laphroaig much more. I feel that the Lag 16 is a bit sharp to the taste, and not what I remember from prior to the Diageo takeover.
I'm sorry, who puts No! and then basically insults everyone else as being an inexperienced drinker because of their 4/5 star reviews??? How RUDE! Love this whisky and have been drinking it for quite some time, couldn't really care less what others think, I've tasted a lot of whisky in my time, this is still my favourite. And if you prefer the taste of bells well then that's up to you...
