Tonight I will review the Lagavulin 16 years old, an Islay single malt.
The 16 years old is actually their base malt, although they have a 12 year old cask strength, and a limited edition 8 year old. Other expressions are either ageless, or older than 16 years.
This the full bottle:
I again got myself a sample in order to taste however.
On to the tasting
The aroma
When tasting whisky, it is always a good idea to first just smell the open bottle.
When smelling the bottle, the beginning is exactly what I expected from an Islay malt: Smoke and salt. And than, when you smell deeper, there is an unmistakeable sweetishness, and something fruity. Remeniscent of apples, but more cidery than just apple…
After having smelt the opened bottle, I poured it into the glass.
Than I smelled again.
The aroma in the glass starts out a lot more complex, but in the end the same ingredients are there: Smoke, peat, sea spray, sweetishness, still the cidery notes.
Lastly, the empty bottle immediately after pouring had the same aroma as the whisky, but after having stood open for about 15 minutes, all that remained was smoke. This means that the other aroma components were light, and easier to evaporate.
The flavour
The smoke is very much there in the flavour. If you are not into peat, stay away. However, if you are dipping your toes into peat, (or maybe getting ready to stick your entire foot in there), this is a good one. It does not have the much harsher tobacco-ash effect some of the Islays (most notably Laphroaig) have, nor does it feel as if you are inhaling the ashes of yesterdays barbeque (try an octomore for that particular experience), but it contains a healthy dose of the good stuff.
Besides peat, there is a sweetness, and a stickiness. The whisky actually feel almost thick when it runs through your mouth.
There is no harshness, a little wood, but not the fresh wood you would associate with a whisky aged in new wood.
Lagavullin uses mainly bourbon casks, although they also make use of Sherry casks.
This whisky is mostly bourbon cask. There might be some Sherry cask aged (or finished) whisky in there to give it it’s sweetness.
Ex-bourbon casks are the most popular kind of barrel in Scotland, because they are fairly neutral. New wood gives off a very distinct woody flavour. After having been filled once, that wood-aroma is mostly drawn out. Due to the similarity of bourbon to whisky, there will not be many taste effects from the bourbon on the whisky.
The bourbon casks mostly just round out and mellow the harshness of the new make spirit.
Distillers actually make the distinction between first fill bourbon casks and second fill bourbon casks, mixing both of them to obtain the desired result when creating their malts. (Unless if you are buying single cask whisky ofcourse)
The aftertaste
The aftertaste is mostly sweet, although with these whiskies, smoke always remains part of what you are tasting.
My judgment
This is a good whisky, it comes in at about 60€ a bottle, and it wholeheartedly beats my previous tasting:
@walkerlv/whisky-review-dalmore-port-wood-reserve
I have not often tasted a sweet smokey whisky, but it works well. 8.5/10
About the distillery:
The distillery is located on the coast of the small island of Islay, of the Westcoast of Scotland;
It is a tiny Island, home to 7 distilleries, with more being currently built. The Lagavullin distillery is located on the East coast of the Island, and is actually within walking distance of the Laphroaig and Ardbeg distilleries. (And if you are willing to put in the legwork, the Bowmore distillery as well.)
The Island is mostly known for it’s whisky, but when I went there a few years ago, it was all the rest which blew me away, the beauty of the natural landscape, the friendliness of it’s 3000 inhabitants. I would go straight back, if it wasn’t so damn hard to get at.
Cheers