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.
Cannot go wrong with this ... a benchmark for peaty single malt whiskies.
Bought this bottle on a lark and the first time I tried it I thought it was awful. Then the next day something said I should try it again. That has been happening now to the point I am going to have to order another bottle. I definitely wouldn't have liked it a year ago but as my tastes have matured so has my love for this scotch.
A complex, peaty whiskey which is the one I drink most frequently even though I have several other Isaly whiskies in my cabinet.
Lagavulin was recommended to me by a waiter in Cefalu, Sicily. I am now obsessed with the smoky rich bite.
The best of everything in one dram
