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…
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