Lagavulin 12 yo Carpano Import 43% vs Lagavulin 15 yo ceramic decanter 45%
Lagavulin 12 yo Carpano Import 43% ~ clear glass white label early 70s bottling
Big whisky even at 43%. Salty, sooty and greasy. Chock full of little phenolic notes from black earth to charred firewood, dirty sea mud and rubbery seagoing implements. Wispy black smoke, burnt meat, hot coals, blackened clay pits, hot stones, burnt leaves, and smoked tea. On the tongue distinctly saline elements appear along the soot, cigar ash, engine oil and hot machinery. Lots of coal. What words cannot convey is the depth and the seamless integration of this whisky. Less aggressively peaty but far more nuanced than today’s Lagavulin 16 for sure. 90 pts
Lagavulin 15 yo ceramic decanter 45% ~ mid 80s bottling
Equally as abundant and almost as purely phenolic, only a bigger canola-esque oiliness and emergence of bitter nuts like walnuts are obvious. Burnt rubber. Maybe saltier throughout as well, with a recognizable smoked dirty herbal aspect that perhaps augurs the future style of this great distillate. Fatter but less precise I think. The rich dark phenols are still perfect, all sea washed and burnt. Touch shorter on the finish. Otherwise just as brilliant. 90 pts
Whiskyrific RSS
- Port Charlotte 12 yo 2004 Highland Laird 57.3% vs Octomore 6.1 / 167 5 yo 57% vs Octomore 7.1 / 208 5 yo 59.5%
- Bowmore 11 yo 2001 / 2013 Berry Bros 20197 46% vs Bowmore 12 yo liquid Library 2001 / 2013 52.9%
- Ben Nevis 17 yo 1996 / 2014 The Nectar of the Daily Drams 49.3% vs Ben Nevis 1997 / 2015 Pearls of Scotland #614 50.9% vs Ben Nevis 16 yo 1998 / 2014 Lady of the Glen #1407 52.1%
- Dailuaine 34 yo 1980 Special Release 2015 50.9% vs Dalmore 27 yo 1990 / 2017 MacKillop’s Choice #252 54.6%
- Bruichladdich 21 yo 1993 / 2015 Douglas Laing DL10706 51.5% vs Bruichladdich 25 yo 1992 / 2017 Cadenhead 175th Anniv 53.8%
- Springbank 21 yo 1993 / 2015 Lockett Brothers #470 49.4% vs Cooley 22 yo 1991 / 2014 SMWS 117.5 55.5%
- Wardhead 19 yo 1997 Pisces Stellar Selections Japan #186 50.7% vs The Huntly Burnside 18 yo 1997 Dimensions Duncan Taylor #6481 52.5% vs Westport 18 yo 1997 The Oceans Duncan Taylor for Whisk-e Japan #1500071 58.4%
- Port Ellen 1979 / 2014 Gordon & Macphail R0/14/01 46% vs Port Ellen 35 yo 1978 / 2004 Douglas Laing for Alambic Classique DL655 61.1% vs Port Ellen 35 yo 1982 / 2018 Signatory 30th Anniversary #2040 55.1%
- Benromach 28 yo 1965 / 1993 Cadenhead 47.6% vs Laphroaig 10 yo ‘Original Cask Strength’ 57.3% 33.33cl duty free bottle
- Jura 21 yo 1992 / 2014 Hunter Laing for FassZination (Vom Fass) #VF10272 46% vs Jura 27 yo 1967 Stillman’s Dram 45%
