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.
You need a tolerance for iodine to enjoy this. And a mouthful of cigar smoke. De gustibus non est disputandum.
As a multi generation scotch family everyone has a favorite. As far as bottles under a hundred dollars we all agree on this one. Truly a smokey scotch and may not be for amateur scotch enthusiasts though.
Absolutely outstanding whiskey. An absolute must try. Up there with my other favourite whiskey, Bowmore 17 year. Thick, smooth and smokey. If you like bowmore, laphroignore and ardbeg then you will live this.
Having no idea what single malts were about, I had my Scotish barkeep line up his favorites so I could sample them without knowing anything about them (price, location, type, reputation, etc.). After several hours, I finally got to Lagavulin and I liked it best hands down. It is now my standard for comparison to any other scotch ~ there are others that are great, but for the price ~ it's still my favorite!
This scotch has a certain uniqueness that others simply don't possess. This scotch is certainly smokey and slightly sweet, but the peatiness brings all the flavors together. Take a sip (without ice) and let it sit on your tongue for 10-15 seconds, swallow, and breathe slowly. You'll know exactly what I'm talking about..... Cheers
