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 read every single review on here before purchasing a bottle. My initial though after opening the bottle was, "holy s*it"!! The flavor is flavor and texture is beyond belief. I was an Oban 14 drinker, but no longer. A great scotch from start to finish. Buy it!!
The first thing you smell is pure smoke. The first thing you taste is... pure smoke. At first I was pretty disappointed in this malt because of it's reputation and price. All I got was smoke and nothing else. However after leaving it in the glass for about 15-20 min it began to release a great deal of flavors and some added sweetness which makes it quite enjoyable. I personally don't add any water to it but I do let it sit and open up. There is much more smoke than peat in this one which I really like (peat is good but after a little while the taste can be over powering in some scotch like bowmore 12 imo)
there is no sherry casks used in the production of lagavulin 16yr old.the sweetness is due to the high grade bourbon cask being used.98% of this is for single malt,the rest for white horse blends.it's the best of the best anywhere in scotland period.i clean out my car engine with johnny walker red,i did'nt know you drank it. stupid american.
One of the first single malts I'd tasted and it was such an eyeopener. Maybe not the best introductory whisky for newbies, but for me it worked. Lovely stuff of smoke and sweetness, always having a bottle of this around (together with the Glendronach 15 :D )
I've been drinking Lagavulin for a while now and I'm never disappointed. However the recent bottle that I cracked open just tastes flat. There is no peaty smoke to it nor that seaweed iodine taste that I liked. This one feels likes its a completely different whiskey and not a Lagavulin at all. I can taste the vanilla but then an under current of coconut. It's a 2014 batch, not sure if this a bad bottled year?
