Discover Whisky

I remember, many years ago, trying Lagavulin a few weeks after finding Laphroaig too medicinal for my young palate, and quite liking it. However for some reason our paths have hardly ever crossed since then. Memory and changing tastes often play tricks so I was interested to see what my opinions of it would be now.

Lagavulin 16 year old, 43%

Colour

Deep amber

Nose

Oh, this is good. You can tell immediately. Warm, slightly salty.

Taste

Initial taste
Exactly like the nose, love at first sip. Brings to mind a warm summers day by the seashore with the grass warm under your feet. There’s a real feeling of mature quality; the fact that it’s older than the normal “standard” malts at 16 years old is very evident. It makes me wonder what the Laphroaig, which readers may remember I thought was not yet fully developed, would have been like at this age. I also wonder what the special 12 year old bottlings of Lagavulin will be like - I’ll definitely be finding out! Did I mention it was warm?

Later taste
The saltiness increases slightly, but not to excess as was threatened with the Bunnahabhain. A little caramel comes through, and increasing suggestions of sweet sherry. The sweet and the salty battle for supremacy but in the end they settle for parity in a balance that retains interest and vitality.

Finish

A strong distinctive finish that stays mostly at the front and sides of the tongue and lasts a long while.

Conclusion

This time the memory merely understated the quality - or the young tastebuds couldn’t yet appreciate it fully. I like this, a lot; better even than the Ardbeg and very close (though a rather different style) to the Caol Ila. It has something in common with Talisker in the rich complexity and saltiness. Perhaps a little more sherry and caramel than the Skye classic, perhaps not quite so many interwoven flavours, but very satisfying indeed. In my list of favourite standard single malts this has now taken a place in the top three - displacing Bowmore (which I’ll be reviewing next) and Highland Park - which is high praise indeed.

My only very slight concern is that any older versions might not be any better, as the sweet sherry flavours might take over, but I’ll happily try them out just in case!