Lagavulin Single Malt Scotch

Deep golden amber. Moderately full-bodied. Smoky peat, sherry wood, sea salt. Extraordinarily perfumed peaty aromas reveal a viscous mouthfeel with a sweet sherry note on entry and complex dry island flavors lingering on the finish. A sumptuous combination of luxurious mouthfeel and assertive flavors and aromas.

An old classic, but how do the newest bottlings fare? Rich, chewy, slightly oily texture. Deep peat, thick smoke, iodine, brine, charcoal, seaweed, tea (Earl Grey, Lapsang Souchong), and the aromas of a summer barbeque. Vanilla and light caramel soften the intensity, while subtle citrus fruit teases. Powerful, yet polished and seamless. After all these years, this whisky is still one of the finest standard-issue peaty, smoky whiskies!

The nose is heavy with peat and iodine. The body is big and oily, and the palate shows notes of the ocean — brine and seaweed. But there’s also a sweetness here that gives this malt a complexity that the nose might not lead you to expect. It’s a strange blend of cream sherry and honey. The finish is long and peaty.

Lagavulin is a classic example of how smoke isn’t a blunt instrument that covers everything in a fog, but an element that works with all the flavors produced in distillation and maturation. Lagavulin isn’t ‘smoky,’ its peat moves into a weird territory of Lapsang Souchong tea and pipe tobacco, fishboxes and kippers. It smells of laurel and light cereal, but is always sweet. The palate shows more creosote, with hints of kelp and a little touch of iodine. Complex.

PEATY - A fascinating turn on an essentially peaty Islay. The smoke offers a toasty element as it coyly introduces itself on the nose, with hard candy as a partner. The peat comes on with salt spray in the mouth, but once again gets quite candy sweet, with a bread dough core. On the finish the smoke fairly disappears for a while as you enjoy the delicate sweetness, masking the next wave of toast at the outer limits.