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.
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Slightly more Smokey than I imagined, however it is an extremely good drink. Nicely long on the palate and smoooth.
I cracked mine open when I had the family round, for me this whiskey is just mesmerising, my family were just as amazed, a true Islay experience of craftsmanship, smoke and satisfaction, what makes lagavulin 16 so special is the rich sophisticated sherry finish to balance the strong smoke.
I bought a bottle a while ago and was going to saving for my holiday later vin the year but alas when a friend bought cigars, I cracked it open, no regrets or complaints and technically the most expensive scotch I've sampled to date beautiful dram and I even tried the Dave Broom heresy of mixing it with Coca-Cola, he does have something right
Sadly it is not as pleasant as previous batches, it still has that wonderful smooth aftertaste, a full smoky flavour but lacks what I would call “body”. Previously priced at the higher end for a good whisky it is now grossly over priced whereas the likes of Bunnahabhain maintains its original flavour and quality for the cost.
Top 3 scotch all time for me. Was a huge revelation for me the first time I tried it. I’m taking off a half star though due to the price increase (I bought it for £49 in Jan 2021 and now the lowest price I’ve found is 70!!). Really frustrating how much prices have gone up at so many of my favourite distilleries
