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.
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I’m new to this SM whisky appreciation society. This 16 yo is the first I’ve had from the Islay area. After having Balvenie double wood 12yo, a couple of Speyside variants (Aberlour 12yo & Glen Moray) this is gradually growing on me the more I try it. The over riding taste/smell is smokey, don’t know what a peaty type is as not had one. Some say this is peaty but smoke dominates it for me. If this was the first SM I had been introduced to, I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it or got it ! If you’re an experienced whisky drinker or a newby like me, you’ll always have the ones you keep going back to. I don’t think I could justify £74 odd on this time & again when I really enjoy ‘tamer’ types. If your starting out on your SM journey, try some others first before the Lagavulin 16, The Aberlour 12yo & Irish Tullamore Dew 14 will dance on the inexperienced tongue. After them...go for it !!
Sad fact! I am an avid collector and enthusiast of Single malt Scotch Whiskey in Vietnam. From 2016 onwards, I have noticed that recently bottled SM Whiskey bottles are of poorer quality than previous bottles of the same type. They lose the flavor of their own identity that brought the love of their fans. That is why I have advised my friends in my SM Whiskey club to hunt and collect as old and as old as possible SM Whiskey bottles. With Lagavulin 16yo, I recommend buying bottles that are bottled from 2016 or earlier, when they still have the red stripe on the cap.
Heaven in a bottle. To those of you giving this a half or 1 star rating enjoy your crap Jim Beam or whatever junk you drink. This is the literal nectar of the gods.
Weak, watery, coloured and just bland. I'm still astonished how people can rate this so highly when it's so bad. I think people are stuck in the past, and rate this highly regardless of the taste. Peat enthusiasts should try the Illeach which is from the same distillery and a massive improvement
What has happened to the great lagavulin 16? Now it has gone mild without the original taste of complexity. I m sad and disappointed.
