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.
Amazing smoky sweet flavor as described. A little bite on the back end, but very tasty.
This is only my second bottle of Scotch, just opened two evenings ago (first bottle was Balvenie Double Wood 12). I have to say that I really like it! There is not as much smoke as I thought. I had tried a Laphroig at a friends place, and found it showed much more smoke, with not much else coming through (I'm very new to this). In contrast, the Lagavulin had smoke at the start, but also the sweetness of the sherry came through. I much prefer the Lagavulin. My favourite dram of all those I have tasted so far.
I'm buying more!
the negative reviews are hilarious... easily the best everyday whisky... nothing comes close... this is a very special drink
Lagavulin 16 is my second favorite scotch that is below the $100 mark in the States. (1) Lagavulin 12 (3) Ardbeg 10. Fantastic stuff.
