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.
They didn't have the Laga Distillers Edition which I was looking for (an awesome dram) so I opted to finally try the 16, and wow, what a whiskey!! I'm new to the Islay whiskeys so I'm not especially into the peat and smoke monsters but I must admit this is really good, the sherry influence is way in the background but it's there. Top class and quite addicting, this one. A shade under 5 stars. Buy it and try it.
drink taste and save the experience.It does not any better than this.As a whiskey drinker of over 30 years you will find that all your taste buds will sing for hours after you have drank this wonderful single malt
initially the smokiness of the open peat flame is overbearing. not for the novice whiskey drinker. then when you get accustomed to the smoke, the smooth underlying character caresses you and treats you to hard islay! the 16yo wood is tasted and has a beautiful intrusiveness fruit finish. a favorite for special occasions but not everyday.
I had my first shot of wiskey few months ago....I bought Lagavulin just for the color....the first taste of it was so incredible and stunning....i tried few different wiskey but.....Lagavulin it's the best.....
I am always keen to try new malts and decided to give Lagavulin a go. I always mix my dram with Irn Bru but I found that this whisky just doesn't mix with it at all! Never mind I did try it and will put it down to a learning curve. I' m sure there are much better malts out there. James McWorthy
