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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Single Malt Report: Lagavulin 16 year old

Yes, I've made it this far without reviewing any official Lagavulins.  But now, to celebrate the 250th whisky reviewed on Diving for Pearls, I bust out a threesome of 'Vulins.


Today, #250 will be Lagavulin 16 year old.  Sample courtesy of Florin!

I will admit here that I have never owned a bottle of Lagavulin 16.  Instead I've only enjoyed it via other people's generosity or via buying a pour at a bar (back when it wasn't $20 a pop).  This wasn't due to any preference against Lagavulin.  I really didn't go peat moss crazy until 4 or 5 years ago, and then in the past three years I've been reducing my Diageo product patronage to zero.  But Lagavulin 16 is always of a reliable quality.  Some reviewers deem it an all-time classic like Highland Park 18.

Yet many of those same reviewers will admit that Lagavulin 16 has undergone some changes over the past decade.  Some years were deemed a little grittier and rawer, other years sweeter, other years oakier, other years smokier, other years sherrier.  We all have our palate sensitivities, but there may be something to the more recent claims of changes.  Around nine years ago, Lagavulin cask maturation moved from Islay to mainland Scotland, thus perhaps temperature, humidity, and climate differences in warehouses resulted in shifts in character.  In 1997, the distillery ramped up production to meet with increased demand, so starting with the most recent bottlings you may be drinking whisky from stills that were pushed harder than they were in the past.  (Here are some links with some of these discussions: WhiskyMag forum chain, WhiskyWhiskyWhiksy chain, Driscoll, David OG.)

This sample came to me in 2012, so it's from spirit distilled before Lagavulin distillery changed their processes.  I will say there is definitely some sherry lurking within...

Distillery: Lagavulin
Owner: THEM!  :)
Type: Single Malt
Region: Islay
Maturation: likely a mix of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks
Age: minimum 16 years
Chill-filtration? Yep
Caramel coloring? Yep
Alcohol by Volume: 43%

NEAT
The color is DiageoGold™.  I always found some sort of cinnamon thing going on in Lag16's nose, and happily it showed up on cue with this sample, this time reading as cinnamon sticks.  There's more peat moss here than in the palate, and it's joined by creme brûlée and vanilla pudding.  Then there's some Super Ball rubber and grapefruit, along with a little bit of sherry and golden raisins.  After 20+ minutes of air, much more citrus shows up.  It gets sugary and mossier.  Some caramel sauce as well.  The palate leads with boat diesel exhaust and charred fish.  The loch's on fire!  Then comes honey, wood smoke, and a veggie note that's not dissimilar to sautéed kale.  Maybe a little black pepper (though it's no Talisker) and pencils.  Very tannic on the tongue.  The finish is sweeter than the palate.  Smoke and charred meat, along with a tart candy tingle.  It's long-lasting considering the ABV and filtration, but its make up is mostly smoke.

WITH WATER
(A thing of note: I finally bought a glass eye-dropper.  Previously, I'd been using small spoons to apply water to whisky.  But now I'll never go back.)
With just a few drops of water the whisky undergoes one heck of a transition.  In the nose there's a flood of sherry notes.  Oloroso sherry, dark dried fruits, cherries, and milk chocolate.  The cinnamon sticks are still there.  New notes of sawdust and leather couch.  But the more water drops, the more sherry shows up.  The palate gets much sweeter and meaty.  Sugar, caramel, and oranges.  It's still smoky, but the moss element grows as does some bitterness.  It finishes very tartly and dry.  Smoke, coffee grounds, and dark chocolate.

This is very good whisky.  If new and future bottlings do change, I hope it is not for the worse.  I may not wish the best for Diageo, but I don't like seeing whiskies lose their mojo due to financial decisions.  If you're a peated single malt lover and haven't tried Lagavulin 16 yet, then I'd recommend doing so.  If you can find it at a bar for $15-or-less, I'd suggest trying it that way rather than forking out larger sums for a blind bottle buy.  Maybe you'll fall in lust with it as many have or maybe you'll stay with your current favorites.

As for me, I find it of similar quality to younger official versions of its neighbors, Laphroaig and Ardbeg.  And it actually isn't that much of a step above Caol Ila 12.  I think the watering down, coloration, and filtration prevents a proper presentation to what should be a gorgeous middle-aged Islay.  (And may I be the 10,000th person to request a 46%ABV NCF version?)  But as I said before, it's still very good.  Quality and bold character still sneak through all of Diageo's manipulation.  And the fun shift that added water brought gives it a couple extra points in my book.  I can't promise there will be any sherry notes in future bottles nor do I have any idea how loud the peat will shout.  But hopefully it remains recognizably Lagavulin.

Availability - Most larger liquor retailers; also Costco has good deals once in while
Pricing - $65-$100, yes it's that wide of a swing
Rating - 88

34 comments:

  1. I find the closer comparison to be Talisker. They're both rocking the mid-range peat and sherry thing, though Lagavulin's peat seems to lean more towards the barbecue end of the spectrum. If it was available for not-silly amounts of money over here, I'd also put Longrow 14 Year on alternatives list. But sadly it's hard to find really good sherry/peat combos. Uigeadail is OK, but tastes too young now. Laphroaig Triple Wood doesn't seem too well put together. Highland Park might be the only reasonable one around right now.

    The whisky geek's lament...

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    1. I'm with you on the Triple Wood. And you know I agree about the Longrow 14. If it makes things any better, from what I've read there won't be much (or any) sherry in the future Lagavulin 16s.

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    2. Huh. Guess it's time to go find older bottle of Lagavulin 16 to buy now. I've also heard rumblings that there's a price increase coming in the next couple of months.

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    3. That wouldn't surprise me. I saw a $20 jump at a local store here this month. $70 to $90.

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  2. Wild swing in prices, but even greater than you indicate. Costco has it for $53 at Christmas time. I'm glad you liked this whisky, just as about everybody else. Somehow I don't! I remember even returning a couple bottles to Costco. Here was my report for the same bottle that you've reviewed. Let's say it's different from yours. Ready?

    "Undifferentiated sweetness with some sherry and some peat. A bit of a mealy mess. It's like a dish where you put a lot of ingredients together, possibly all very good, and then you put everything through the blender. Very underwhelming! Not a pleasant experience. 2.5 stars."

    That was fun to read, one year later! :) I could have written same exact thing for Bowmore 12yo, so I probably just don't care for sherry all that much. Or for Lagavulin. Since then I sampled a couple naked Lagavulins and it's an interesting profile, with a farmy component think Tobermory but with more peat and less farm, with some smoked fish, and a good, oily body a la Clynelish. (I think I'm just describing smoked cod oil, mmmm...) Very good stuff to be sure, but I prefer almost every other Islay: Laphroaig, Caol Ila, Bowmore, Kilchoman.
    I haven't tried the Lagavulin 12yo so I'm curious to read your report on it.

    As for Jordan's comment that it's hard to find good sherry/peat combo - I agree. The few ones come to mind are a single cask, AD Rattray CS Bowmore 20yo, and the Kilchoman Spring 2010 release. I can think off the top of my head of a couple double malts that could work - how about Laphroaig 10yo + Tomatin 12yo?. But in general peat + sherry is a tricky combination. Of course, that doesn't stop Bowmore or Lagavulin or JW Black Label for that matter. I'll have to retry Highland Park, I like it a lot but I never find it peaty...

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    1. Costco does run some great deals on whiskies. Too bad they're usually from Diageo! I did like this Lagavulin, but it's not the world beater as so many have claimed. I'd take Laphroaig or indie Bowmore (minus one) above it. My two previous experiences with the 12yo have been very positive, we'll see how Thursday's sample holds up.

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  3. Some recent(ish)/still available OB peat/sherry malts I've liked (in no particular order):

    1. Bruichlanddich Infinity 3 (still available here and there)
    2. Bowmore Darkest 15 (but you have to like Bowmore)
    3. Longrow 11, 1998, Refill Sherry Hogshead (this was on sale in the US last year <$75)
    4. Ardbeg Uigeadail (reports of its decline are greatly exaggerated)
    5. Ballechin 4, Oloroso (overpriced but good)
    6. Every Laga D.E (despite my antipathy to finishes)
    7. Kilchoman 5, 2006, Sherry Cask (haven't had the Loch Gorm or other sherry releases so can't compare)
    8. Laphroaig Triple Wood (but then I am a sucker for all things Laphroaig)

    I've also not included Highland Park, because, like Florin, I recognize there's peat in there but don't really think of it as a peaty malt per se. I'm not a huge fan of the Talisker D.E. I do wish Diageo would put out some younger sherry aged Caol Ila. The few I've had from the indies have been really good.

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    1. The three Kilchoman single sherry casks I've tried were are all excellent, some of my favorite peat & sherry combos. Those single sherry casks are very hard to come by now.

      Being a Longrow geek, I'd love to grab their refill sherry cask. I know a certain Midwest seller who has it, but I wish I could find a bottle here in CA.

      I'll be posting something on Laga DE tomorrow (Weds). I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on your experiences with it.

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    2. I also like Laphroaig Triple Wood, but only based on a 30ml sample. I should have added Longrow to the list, though mine wasn't terribly sherried. I did really enjoy a sample of Talisker DE, enough to make me buy a bottle (still unopened). And I really liked the Benriach Heredotus Fumosus, also a small sample.

      One day I'll add Laphroaig CS to Glenfarclas 105 and let the best man win.

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    3. Ooh, that sounds like a good idea, Florin. The sherry cask whisky going into Uigeadail is barely smoky anyway, so you won't be too far off from the construction of that one.

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    4. Florin, I'll leave you to it. But please don't harm too much Laphroaig CS in the process!

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    5. No worries, I have cases of it. Okay, one case. And Laphroaig CS can't be killed, it's the ultimate Terminator. For starters, I may sic some on this Macallan CS bottle that I can't get to enjoy no matter how hard I try.

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    6. A little peat should give Macallan an added boost. When are they going to release their 1000000GBP reserve-priced Damien Hirst-designed diamond-encrusted turd decanter of peated single malt into the Asian auction market?

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    7. The horror... the horror... That Macallan CS is beyond redemption and there's nothing the Laphroaig CS could do about it! I'm recovering with a Glendronach Single Cask + LCS10, that's more to my liking.

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    8. Florin, I'd suggest adding some lighter bourbon cask malt to the Macallan CS before bringing in the Laph 10 CS. I find a "bridging" malt sometimes makes all the difference in a home vatting.

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    9. Thanks Mao. I had a thought along similar lines, that I was going to give this bottle another chance and take it to the light side. I have in mind Cardhu 12yo (warm and malty, too bad that I don't have much to spare) Speyburn 10yo (good body, maybe too citrusy?) or Glenfiddich 12yo (right flavors, thin body). There's also this CS Braeval whose metallic side may be muffled by the Macallan. I did not consider *then* adding Laphroaig, but I'll give it a try. The problem with the Macallan CS is that it's so damn winey, like a whisky with ruby port mixed in.

      On a different note I found Laphroaig 10yo CS Batch 5 lighter than previous batches, with less soot and ash. Not a good think in my book. I think this is consistent with your notes Michael, I'll give you my comments under the right entry after a proper tasting.

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    10. Thank Florin, I was wondering what you'd thought of that batch since you know your Laphroaig CS pretty well. Which Glendronach single cask is receiving a Laphroaig boost?

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    11. This one. I still have a couple ounces lying around. I don't enjoy this as much as you did, it's too dark and brooding for me, all 100% dark chocolate and not as balanced as I would like - Mao sent me an excellent one some time ago. In any case, you had put me in a sherry+peat mood so I had to do something to wash out the failed Macallan experiment. This did it. In the past I had mixed it with Speyburn instead, with very happy results!

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    12. Yeah, that Dronach did it for me. It's good to hear you found a good combo. BTW, if you need to rid yourself of additional bottles of that whisky let me know and I'll start saving my pennies and nickels.

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  4. My last experience with Lagavulin 16 was from a bottle I bought in 2010 (back when it was $59.99 a bottle). The one tasting note I vividly recall was the smoked barbeque on the nose. I'd considered buying another bottle when that one was finished but I decided on giving another distillery to try.

    On a related note watching The Angels' Share on Netflix has led me to wonder what Malt Mill would have tasted like. By all indications, it was a copy of Laphroaig inside Lagavulin with Lagavulin's water source (apparently the reason why Malt Mill didn't taste like Laphroaig).

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    1. I'm glad the film's finally available for streaming here. Gonna try to catch it this weekend. Had Malt Mill survived and was actively operating we'd have a good time discussing terroir between the three distilleries' whiskies.

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    2. It's pretty clear Charlie MacLean had some input on the whisky side of things in the movie. But I found one particular part odd. MacLean asks the main character about a mystery single malt that he guesses is either Glenfarclas or Cragganmore (it's a Cragganmore 12). Having owned a bottle of both, I can honestly say there is a BIG difference in flavor profile between those two distilleries.

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    3. Yyyyyeah. Unless the Cragg was aged in ex-oloroso (which the 12 isn't) or if they had a magical bottle of very lightly peated bourbon cask Glenfarclas, I don't see how they could be similar. He might as well have said it's either Ledaig or Macallan.

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  5. I really loved Lagavulin back in the 90s but nowadays they seem to get more and more into a product which is suitable for the masses. i bought a bottle of it last Autumn and found it very sweet and without the typical rawness and drying finish. For that reason i compared it with an older White Horse Bottling and there you go... all the hefty notes of tar, iodine, liquorice and of course sherry mith a wonderfully over-dry finish.

    I think it's still a nice malt, but nowadays it's really missing a lot of it's character. Better to buy one old bottle of White Horse Laga and truely enjoy it on special occasions than two or three bottles of the actual one...

    just my 2 cents ;)

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    1. I totally agree, but oh if we only had some White Horse Lagavulin left in The States! What little remains is in the hands of two or three dozen collectors, and with our dodgy secondary market those bottlings go for a small fortune now.

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    2. Really? Here they are about $150-200 and they show up regularly on Ebay and other Auction Platforms. But i know that Ebay isn't playing the trick anymore in the States as well as in the UK.

      Don't you guys have any Platforms to interchange or Buy Bottles privately?

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    3. Privately only, and one needs to keep it hush-hush Fight Club-style. Even the Facebook groups that facilitate these transactions have to write/speak in code or else the group gets shut down. Sending bottles via the post or any other courier is also verboten. Heck, even most of our retailers WITH licenses aren't shipping between states.

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    4. Wow. So in fact the situation is very close to what some "insert a religion which is very popular in the middle east" countries try to accomplish :D What about the land of the free...?

      At least you're allowed to drink the stuff ... for now :P

      Nah... just joking, but i'm always surprised how many things are forbidden in the states...

      Are you allowed to transport alcohol from one state to the other by car? I mean privately.

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    5. Yeah, we're allowed to transport via our own private cars. Plus we can check bottles in with our luggage. Thus sometimes one has to find a drug mule to get bottles around, except I request that my mules do not stash the bottle the same way they'd hide a baggie of coke. Just a personal preference.

      This interstate thing is so goofy. It partially stems from tax issues. It partially stems from old liquor laws. It partially stems from the fact that our states are anything but united. Meanwhile I find it much easier ordering from EU countries sometimes. Too bad the dollar is so weak!

      The shipping/transport problem is particularly frustrating to me right now because my in-laws bought me a VERY nice bourbon and now they can't ship it out of New York state.

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    6. What about setting up a private transport system?
      I mean we do that in our forum. We have a couple of people which are regularly drive up from germany to the UK just to cellect bottles forum members ordered at different online shops. As for example SMWS GB only ship whitin GB. So they collect about 75 Bottles per trip and bring them to Germany. From there on they start to send them along to the owners by mail, charging 5 Euros per bottle for the service :)

      Maltlovers unite!

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    7. We have a couple systems in place that may or may not break some rules. I like what you guys are doing as well; I do wish we could ship full bottles here. The personal shipping limitation may be linked to the flammability of the booze. Worries about explosives, etc. But if we cannot courier a bottle of Caperdonich, then the terrorists have already won.

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    8. Ah yeah... how could i forget about the terrorists. so I do have whisky, but feel very unsave now in Europe :P

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  6. It's safe to say that if the maturation location is not the same then things are different and it's to be expected that the final product will be different.

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    1. Yeah, I agree. Though bourbon makers don't disclose a hell of a lot, some of them are willing to talk about warehouse locations or positioning within actual warehouses/rickhouses. Meanwhile Scotch whisky producers (and writers) rarely talk about maturation locations, unless it's something they can market (e.g. the salty sea air!). There's likely more temperature variation in Kentucky than Scotland, but one has to believe a single malt changes when its storage conditions are altered.

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