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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- Benriach 33 yo 1977 / 2011 #9119 45.7% for Asta Morris vs Benriach 35 yo 1976 / 2012 #8804 54.9%
- Lagavulin Distiller’s Edition 1994 / 2010 lgv.4/498 43% vs Lagavulin Friends of the Classic Malts 12 yo 1995 / 2008 48%
- Glen Grant 27 yo 1955 / 1982 Samaroli 43% vs Glenury Royal 24 yo 1966 / 1990 Cadenhead 53.8%
- Lochside 22 yo 1979 / 2001 Douglas Laing Old Malt Cask 276 bttls 50% vs Lochside 32 yo 1982 / 2014 Malts of Scotland #14019 55.2% vs Lochside 29 yo 1981 / 2010 Thosop 50.5%
- St Magdalene 25 yo 1964 / 1989 Cadenhead 44.2% vs St Magdalene 23 yo 1970 Rare Malts 58.43%
- Caol Ila 15 yo Sestante for Novecento 64.7% vs Caol Ila 15 yo Sestante 65.3%
- Glen Garioch 25 yo 1990 / 2017 LMdW ‘Artist #7’ Cask #2694 52.3% vs Glen Garioch 1968 29 yo 1968 #625 57.2%
- Clynelish 90 yo 1972 / 2002 Scotch Malt Sales 58% vs Clynelish 23 yo 1974 / 1998 Rare Malts 59.1%
- Scapa 12 yo 40% ~2000 vs Scapa 8 yo Gordon & Macphail 57% ~ late 80s
- Bruichladdich 21 yo 1992 / 2014 Duncan Taylor #3987 49.7% vs Bruichladdich 22 yo 1991 / 2014 Gleann Mor #2270 55.9%
