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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- Rosebank 14 yo 1966 / 1980 Cadenhead 46% vs Rosebank 26 yo 1967 / 1994 Scotch Single Malt Circle (Japan) #4398 51.7%
- Springbank 23 yo bottled Dec 1991 James MacArthur’s 53.7% vs Ardbeg 17 yo 1976 / 1993 Cadenhead 54.6%
- Glenfarclas over 12 years old F.W Hempel Metallurgical GmbH 45% vs Glenfarclas 25 yo 43%
- Craigellachie 12 yo 2007 / 2019 SMWS 44.113 59.9% vs Talisker 15 yo Special Release 2019 57.3%
- Glen Grant 23 yo 1992 / 2016 Cadenhead 53.1% vs Glentauchers-Glenlivet 26 yo 1990 / 2017 Cadenhead 52.6% vs Fettercairn 28 yo 1988 / 2017 Cadenhead 55.4%
- Old Pulteney 13yo 1990 /2003 Cadenhead 61.1% vs Old Pulteney 18 yo 1974 The Whisky Connoisseur #1132 57.8%
- Glen Moray 24 yo 1992 /2017 Cadenhead 50.9% vs Linkwood 24 yo 1992 / 2017 Cadenhead 50.9%
- Glen Garioch 21 yo 1992 / 2014 Liquid Library 51.6% vs Glen Garioch 21 yo 1991 / 2012 Liquid Library 52.5%
- Teaninich 11 yo 2006 / 2018 Cadenhead 55.2% vs Teaninich 10 yo 2009 / 2019 Cadenhead 55.1%
- Springbank 34 1964 / 1998 Cadenhead 52.2% vs Springbank 30 1972 / 2002 Chieftain’s #410 57.8%
