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.
Just received a bottle for my birthday. Wow what an experience, I have dabbled a bit from laphroaig to macallens. Lagavulin is incredible, a slow draw and a tear in my eye. Perfect.
Simply the best…and no, Amrut Fusion, Bowmore and even Blue are not as good My 25 year old son brought a bottle of Lagavulin 16 to a recent gathering of his college friends…now all young professionals. After tasting, amazed, they asked, "Why do you have a scotch like this?" His response: "Why DON'T you have a scotch like this?"
Not as peaty as Laphroaig. Love the fruit, oak n peat combination.. Right now my favourite.
Beautiful smokey taste with a hot after bite. Great whiskey for a novice and seasoned professional. Fantastic.
Was looking forward to trying my bottle of Lagavulin 16 the other night, 1 oz over ice and thought I opened paint thinner by mistake. Found it to be undrinkable, and was glad the Liqour store took the opened bottle back. I guess the smokey plastic taste is acceptable to a lot of people. Will stick with my Glenlivet and Macallan
