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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- Clynelish 26 yo 1990 / 2016 Cadenhead 45.3% vs Highland Park 28 yo 1989 / 2018 Cadenhead 48.8%
- Linkwood 29 yo 1989 / 2019 SMWS 39.180 51% vs Linkwood 11 yo 2007 / 2019 SMWS 39.176 58%
- Strathisla 1967 / 2004 Duncan Taylor 45.9% vs Strathisla 1965 James MacArthur 51.7%
- Lagavulin 12 yo Carpano Import 43% vs Lagavulin 15 yo ceramic decanter 45%
- Eastern Highland 1975 / 1988 Samaroli Fragments of Scotland 50% (Glen Garioch) vs Glen Garioch 17 yo 1975 James MacArthur’s 54.2%
- Bowmore 10 yo Devil’s Cask Batch 1 56.9% vs Bowmore 10 yo Devils Cask Batch 2 56.3%
- Dalmore 10 yo 2006 46% vs Tomintoul 25 yo 40% ~2014 bottling vs Mackmyra Moments Ledin 48%
- Mortlach 21 yo 1957 / 1978 Cadenhead dumpy 80 proof vs Mortlach 22 yo 1969 / 1969 Cadenhead dumpy 50.5%
- Ledaig 20 yo 1972 James MacArthur 53.8% vs Ledaig 21 yo 1972 James MacArthur 54.2% vs Ledaig 18 yo James MacArthur 54.4% vs Ledaig 18 yo James MacArthur 55.2% vs Ledaig 23 yo 1972 for LMdW 51.9%
- Aberlour 30 yo 1963 James MacArthur 55.2% vs Aberfeldy 17 yo 2002 / 2019 Distillery Special #20019 54.9%
