Lagavulin 16 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Islay 750ml

Expert Review

Wine Enthusiast 90 Points | Soy sauce, olive brine, peat, honey, oloroso Sherry, brewer’s yeast, bread dough, barley malt and cigar smoke in the bouquet. The flavor that magically includes the innate intense peatiness of Islay malts and the masterly employment of oak barrels phase defines “classy Islay.? Concludes sweetly, without sacrificing the tangy, astringent peatiness that is inherent. Gorgeous.

Enjoy reading this review of Laguvulin 16 year old written by Margarett Waterbury -TheWhiskeyWash.com

Tasting Notes:

Lagavulin 16-Year-Old is satisfying in a way that many other things are not. You might not like it, but if you enjoy whisky, it is essential for you to buy a bottle of Lagavulin 16, and drink it. It might take you the rest of your life, but its important.

Appearance: A deep, dusky amber.

Nose: Oh, geez. Theres peat, first of all, a big, pungent whack of it, laced with smoked fish and driftwood and salty rocks. But underneath that, theres a great big ocean of sweet, caramelized malt, all baked apples and cobbler crust. Plenty of industrial character, toosoot, rubber, hot electrical equipment, and that magical, grimy petrichor of a dirty urban sidewalk after a summers rain.

Palate: You know that saying turns to ashes in your mouth? This is like the opposite. At first, its like a mouthful of recently extinguished ashescharred, powdery, astringentbut then a lush, maritime garden quickly comes into Technicolor focus. Basically, Lagavulin 16 tastes just like a real boat: varnish, diesel, salty nets, ocean spray, and the sticky lanolin-rich smell of a thick wool sweater a hardworking man has been wearing one too many days in a row. Over several minutes in the glass, ghosts of fruit emergeorange and red cherry, mostlybut never seem to break through the low-hanging haze. Thats alright a suggestion is enough.

When people talk about Scotch whisky, maritime imagery comes up a lot. So lets start with a beach metaphor.

Wonderful Glenmorangie is like visiting a beach in San Diego. Its great! Its 85 degrees, its sunny, the water is warm, and everybodys having a fantastic time. Lagavulin is like a visit to the Oregon Coast. Describe the experience objectivelyits cold, its grey, its rainy, theres not much to do and certainly no place to swim without a dry suit or a death wishand some might wonder why bother going at all. To others, theres nowhere else in the world theyd rather be.

Sunny beaches are terrific. But sometimes you need an experience with a little more grit, something that reflects the grimy, complex, trying, sometimes objectively badexperience of real life. For times like that, theres Lagavulin. Its peaty, medicinal, pungent, smoky, a Band-aid factory in the throes of catastrophic meltdown, and when you really need it, nothing else will do.