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.
If you like a peaty whisky this should absolutely be in your glass.
I made a pledge to review every whisky I drink to educate the world about the finer points of whisky (he said optimistically). But this review is a total waste of time as all of us already know; LV 16 is a masterclass in smoky, peatiness infused with sea air and seaweed, yet perfectly mixed with a good slug of your granny's sweet and sumptuous cream sherry. An absolute must have classic. I'll stop wasting my time now!
As a devoted fan of Islay malts, Lagavulin 16 is the standard to which all others are compared. An absolute "must have" in a malt whiskey lover's cabinet. A sublime marriage of carefully controlled peatiness and smoke with an aged complexity that is unmatched by other Islay malts.
Nothing better than Lagavulin and a good cigar. A match made in heaven.
As a relative newcomer to scotch, I "grew up" on the Johnny Walkers, Dewars, etc. ... this past Christmas, my wife (knowing my fondness for smoky flavor profiles in both food and beer, although not a scotch drinker, herself) had treated me to a bottle of Ardbeg, which I absolutely loved from the very first sip. More recently, she suggested that I try some Lagavulin 16, as her research indicated that it might be something that I would enjoy. Boy, was she ever right. To me, this is like a fruitier, more mellow cousin to Ardbeg. Just a beautiful and elegant sip, as long as you know what you are getting into. I'm still learning about scotch, but Lagavulin 16 was a most welcome and successful lesson. I give it an A+.
