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.
i recently bought a bottle of Lagavulin 16 and one of ardbeg oogy to see how they compare, and although think the oogy just wins the islay stakes by a nose (geddit) would certainly buy this again. in my opinion its slightly smoother than the ardbeg but loses a tiny something in being so. id give lagavulin 94/100 and ardbeg 96/100
oops! almost forgot :-)
I took my time getting to this pinnacle of Scotches, and so should you if you are a newbie or just a remedial SM Enthusiast. I worked my way from Clynelish to Oban 14 to Talisker 10 (I would also suggest Cao Ila 12 (also the 14) & Scala 16 along the way) ... and then finely I tried Lag. It is as good... if not better than described by the most glowing reviews above. Most people's palates do change as they progress. I would NOT suggest jumping right into this. (Cannot say what an experienced Bourbon or Canadian Whiskey drinker might find though.) When I was very young (many years ago) I was astonished that adults drank Beer, it tasted so foul to me (and to be certain, some of it was.) But eventually I developed a taste for it, and began to understand what I liked and why I liked it. It simply takes time.
This was the one that first made me enjoy whisky. Wonderfully strong smoky flavour with a great finish. It was a sad moment when the bottle ran dry.
I dont care how much you spend on a bottle of whisky, i dont care if theres a 40 year old bottle of something somewhere with superior complexity, this is the most delicious scotch whisky i have ever tasted. It smells like a bowl of lemon wedges with vanilla right in front of a peat fire, tastes almost the same. A rich, juicy fruit taste that somehow goes so well with a smooth but deep smokiness. Finish is smokiest aspect, leaves you feeling like you've got something good in your stomach but hair on your chest.
