Back in the 1880s, Alfred Barnard, author of The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom, enjoyed an eight-year-old Lagavulin he described as "exceptionally fine". As part of their 200th anniversary celebrations, the distillery therefore decided to recreate said eight-year-old! It's bottled at an exciting 48% ABV and was matured in refill European and American oak casks.
This bottle was part of a private collection - if you'd like more detailed photos just get in touch!
Salted popcorn, honey-roasted nuts, tarry ropes and light hints of freshly-chopped cedar. A touch of burnt sugar sweetness lingers.
Smokey peat appears first on the palate, followed by coriander seed, barley sugar, cumin powder, smoked kipper and marzipan.
Layers of apple crumble, toasted almond and ash. Another kick of cooking spices right at the end.
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Better than the 16 year old! Must try.
The 8yo can be mixed in roughly equal parts with 16yo to create Complexity. The 16yo lagavulin of 25 years ago didn't taste like band-aids and lack dimensions. Laga 16yo from a quarter century ago used to have a much smokier complexity with citrusy floral notes in addition to peat. Nowadays the laga 16yo standard edition doesn't until you mix in the fresh 8yo to liven it up. The laga 12yo or distillers edition may exhibit more classic complexity, but haven't tasted them yet. At least the 8yo allows me to salvage the recent laga 16yo bottle.
If you like lake Laugavulin or Islay try a glass of this once. Probably my favorite scotch pity it’s limited edition.
Brilliantly executed dram. Cannot reccommend this highly enough. I sure hope it will remain in the core range.
Yes - agree with the many others here that say this is very fine. Beautiful smoke without too much char (unlike neighbour Caol Ila 12 yo which seems to me to be like sucking on coal), the favour has lots of complexity, but manages to be round and slightly buttery too, finishing with a sort of boiled sweets thing which is nicer than that sounds. Beats the 16 yo in my opinion, which very obviously lacks sparkle after this.
