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.
My son bought my first personal bottle of Lagavulin 16 for my 60th birthday; a treat for certain. Not being at all acquainted with the nuances and complexities of a finer bottle of Scotch whisky, I was at first somewhat overwhelmed by the taste of smoke and peat, mixed with something I might almost refer to as...antiseptic or medicinal. My son recommended I hold a mouthful in for about ten seconds, then slowly as possible begin the swallowing process. As I began to do so, I experienced, after about 8 seconds or so, a near explosion of flavors quite unlike the peat moss taste that had been at the forefront of my initial go at it. A woodsy flavour, one accompanied quite nicely with a tad of decent sherry, became quite pronounced. I am, even as I write this review, enjoying a two finger splash of the whisky over two cubes of ice. Perfect for what ails ya! Cheers!
Perfection
From my perspective the best balance between sweetness, smokiness and earthiness.
Well this has been my first 'disappointment' as a whisky, sadly! My bottle, anyways, is not what I would describe as rich or thick - it's quite thin and does not stand up to any water being added, and I mean a drop! It is very sweet and smoky though, with lovely licorice and ginger bread notes and a nice smoky/tea bag finish; not unpleasant by any means but was not what I expected given reviews and tasting notes I have come across. Have to say that the 16 years have definitely created an easy drinking spirit that does indeed have 'the fire taken out'. Possibly a bad batch or tired casks? My lowest rating given - I don't feel that for the price I was getting the quality that, say for £2-3 extra, I would have got from an Uigeadail. Maybe I had too high expectations but I've had better whiskys for much less. 46% and NCF would also help!
Opening this bottle and taking a sniff you get a hint of formaldehyde and antiseptic. When you try to drink it it gets worse. The formaldehyde flavor over powers everything but the dirt, and the finish is a mix of sawdust and iodine.
