My Top 10 - LAGAVULIN 16 YEARS

By Whiskey Noobs - November 18th, 2015
Editor’s Note: We welcome another whiskey review from the Whiskey Noobs review team.
Lagavulin was our 1st journey into the world of Islay. The 1st time we breathed in the peaty goodness that is Lagavulin and experienced the taste of a peat bog we knew that scotch was for us. Lagavulin is a distillery located on the island of Islay off the south western coast of Scotland. The distilleries there are know for their peaty character and Lagavulin is one of the leading distilleries in the world. They have been distilling peaty goodness since 1816 (just two years after the Star Spangled Banner was written and the British burned the White House!).
I still don’t understand why it took as long as it did for us to sample such a delicious spirit! Getting the idea yet that we enjoyed this scotch?
Aged in bourbon barrels, the 16 Year Old is their flag ship whisky and can be found in just about any liquor store. It is on the pricey side coming in around $100 a bottle so if peated whisky is not your thing you may want to pass on this one but for peat lovers this bottle is well worth the price.
Matt
Color: Amber
Nose: Peat, an iodine saltiness, smoke, underlying sherry sweetness
Palate: PEAT! smoky oak, sea salt, orange, toffee, with spice towards the end
Finish: Smoke, peat, freshly cut grass, peppery, long and heavenly.
w/ Water: Ruins a great scotch.
SCORE: 95
Jim
Color: Deep amber
Nose: Peat, smoke, salt, oaky sweet. All that is good in a well peated Scotch.
Palate: Peat punches you in the face, followed by his buddy smoke. Then it hits you up with salt and orange and spice. Great for a fireside drink on a brisk autumn day.
Finish: Smoky, long, & peaty. Long with pepper, too. Surprisingly more complex than just peat and smoke everywhere.
w/ Water: Completely falls apart. Better without.
SCORE: 94

by Whisky Drinker
One of the world’s rarest bottles of Single Malt Scotch Whisky has returned to its ancestral home at Lagavulin Distillery.
The 130-year old unopened bottle of “Lagavulin Liqueur” contains single malt whisky that was distilled at Lagavulin Distillery on Islay on 2 June 1881. After 30 years in cask, the single malt was bottled on 2 June 1911 by Mackie & Co of Glasgow, then owners of Lagavulin Distillery.
The bottle was acquired at auction by Diageo and forms part of their spirits industry archive and was recently exhibited at the visitors’ centre at Royal Lochnagar distillery on Deeside.
Donald Renwick, distillery manager at Royal Lochnagar and former distillery manager at Lagavulin, travelled to Islay to carry the bottle back home, where it has been deposited in an ultra-secure display case in the Visitors Centre.
The handover to Lagavulin’s present manager Georgie Crawford took place on June 2 2011, the 100th anniversary of the bottling and the 130th anniversary of its distilling.