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.
This beautiful, rich whiskey has a power to entice you. It's rich, deep with a long finish. Pitty but not overly so, with a beautiful hue of Polish amber.
Huge smokey nose and taste.
I love Talisker, and this whisky beats it. I'm a McKinnon, so that hurts.
While some may consider Laphroaig 10 almost medicinal, Lagavulin 16 has the peat and iodine of Laphroaig nicely balanced with the smooth complex smoky nature of a 25 year-old from The McCallan. A longtime favorite of mine (and many of my friends) amongst commercially available single malts.
Been taking the scottish medicine for quite a few years now - lagavulin is the very best value by far. To get any better you need to spend £100's. Add a little water (tiny drop) to break it up and it is transformed into a smooth delightful dram - not gonna get ponsy about hint of this etc, is down to your tongue. If you are new to Malt maybe start on a lowland light fruity number before moving onto the speys and islays. Malt - its not business its personal. ENJOY.
