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
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