Lagavulin vs itself
Standing in front of my whisky shelf I realize I have more Lagavulin open than any other distillery.
5 open bottles vs 2 for Laphroaig, 2 Mortlach, 2 Clynelish, 2 Talisker.
What’s a man to do for fun then. Drink all 5? Yeh why not, I have heard it to be recommended as educational, so worth a shot. No?
Ok just 4, I left the Ileach out.
Lagavulin 16 vs LG1 vs Lagavulin 12 (2011) vs Lagavulin DE
Simple fun stuff no serious notes here.
Unsurprisingly, the DE had the richest colour, followed by the 16. Well they’re sherried so that’s expected. The palest here was the 12 yo.
Nose: The good old 16 had the best peat-smoke-coastal-sweetness balance still, meaning it was sweet but its sweetness underlined rather than competed with the peat and the sea. Shows how fine a whisky it is. The DE was at first nosing so much more sherried, that it even blocked out the peat a bit initially. Given some time the aniseed, menthol and tea flavours came out. Quite nice in its style, if that’s your kind of thing.
The LG1 was a real bruiser, smacking you hard with tar and oil and earthy aromas, bit lacking in complexity, but it truly wears its ‘Islay-ness’ proudly. The 12 was the gentle one here – not austere by any measure but wow did it look thin next to the 16 even. The 12 had flinty, wet wool, more coastal, more salt and kippers, high fruit notes, and even the smoke took a bit of a backward step here.
Palette:Things played out as expected. Here the strength of the 12 really helped, though I cant help but feel – with a bit more herbs and grass, a bit less peat, I could very well mistake it for a high strength Caol Ila. And the DE had a surprise, being much more complex on the tongue than the nose would suggest, nice mix of fruit juice, menthol, really chased by the peat and smoke etc. It seems really determined not to let anyone forget its origins at the end of the day.
This was fun! Maybe I should collect a few friends and do this more often…
Whiskyrific RSS
- Glen Ord 28 yo 1992 / 2020 SMWS 77.65 49.3% vs Caol Ila 27 yo 1983 / 2010 Spirit of Caledonia 51.5%
- Craigellachie 20 yo 1972 / 1992 Cadenhead 53.3% vs Craigellachie 22 yo 1973 / 1995 Rare Malts 60.2%
- TTomatin 40 yo 1962 / 2002 Douglas Laing 44% vs Tomatin 19 yo 1976 / 1996 Cadenhead 55.9%
- Benrinnes 20 yo 1995 / 2018 La Maison du Whisky #6093 49.4% vs Benrinnes 20 yo 1997 / 2017 Cadenhead for Shinanoya #912 57.4%
- Ireland 27 yo 1988 / 2015 Nectar of the Daily Drams for La Maison 49.5% vs Secret Highlands 24 yo 1996 / 2020 Batch no.7 Finest Whisky Berlin 54.8%
- Single Malt Irish Whiskey 30 yo 1989 / 2019 The Whisky Cask Company #16044/16258 48.1% vs Single Malt Irish Whiskey 24 yo 1991 / 2016 The Whisky Cask Company #6847 55.8%
- Teaninich 12 yo 2007 / 2019 Single Malts of Scotland #301262 57.5% vs Secret Orkney 15 yo 2005 / 2021 Cooper’s Choice #121 56%
- Bunnahabhain 30 1989 / 2020 “Kinship” Hunter Laing 45.5% vs Laphroaig 24 1990 / 2014 Hunter Laing #HL14111 51.9%
- The Malt Affair: Michiel Wigman Masterclass tasting
- Longmorn 22 yo 1969 / 1991 Intertrade 61% vs Longmorn 23 yo 1969 / 1993 Gordon & Macphail #3721 and 5297 61.2%
whiskyrific 