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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- Isle of Jura 30 yo 1966 / 1996 Signatory #1868/69 52.6% vs Isle of Jura 30 yo 1966 / 1996 Kingsbury #1867 49.7%
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- Ben Nevis 19 yo 1996 Distiller’s Art 48% vs Ben Nevis 20 yo 1995 Gleann Mor #11308 53.4% vs Ben Nevis 22 yo 1992 Cadenhead 53.5%
- Lagavulin 25 yo 200th Anniversary 51.7% ~2016 vs Lagavulin 30 yo 52.6% ~ 2006
- Craigellachie 31 yo Batch Batch 04-6137 52.2% vs Cragganmore 29 yo 1973 / 2003 Special Release 52.5%
- Convalmore 36 yo 1977 / 2013 Special Release 58% vs Convalmore 36 yo 1977 / 2013 Cadenhead 58.2%
