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 am in no way a fan of peated or Smokey Whisky. I can't stand Ardbeg, laphroig etc, but with Lagavulin its different, even though its rich, the flavours of the smoke and peat are well balanced on the tongue. This not only makes it drinkable for me, but something really nice. The. First time i tried it was at a Whisky Live tasting even, they recommended having a smoked cheese along with a lagavulin to promte the flavours, and it works!
Lovely peat although a bit dry and ashy. Very nice medicinal notes. Nice smoothness shows the benefit of those 16 years in the cask. My only problem is the price. Fans of Lagavulin 16 should try Ian MacLeod's Smokehead which, although clearly younger by taste, is considerably cheaper and I will bet money that it is made either by Lagavulin themselves or Lagavulin's sister company Caol Ila.
and this is not the stuff it used to be very sad
This is an amazing scotch. Smoky, wonderful nose, sweet finish and very easy to drink. Priced reasonably too. This and the laphroaig 18 at my favorites among the smoky, peaty and sweet scotches. same price as the 18 Laphroaig. Both benefit with the addition of a teaspoon of water to enhance the favors.
There's cheap booze and expensive booze and they are 2 completely different things. Previous reviewers have described the taste well, and I love me some Lagavulin taste, but nobody's touched on the warm rush that you get when good booze hits your stomach. Lagavulin gives me a warm, spreading rush like no other. After about the third sip, I just melt. Cheap booze can't do that at all. It's right up there with playing Really Loud electric guitar on a good night when your band is tight and almost as good as really good sex. Seriously good Whisky. One of the best drams I've tried. Peace. -Bernie
