ABV: 48 %
Origin: Islay
Type: Single Malt
Bottles in collection: 1
Emptied bottles: 0
Impression: 4/5

Tasting notes
Nose: This is very ashy, warm and sweet. There are big honey, vanilla and butterscotch flavours and the oak is surrounding its sweet heart. There’s a salty, seaweed, ocean note coming through from the distillate. A hint of lemon is the only fruity contribution. There’s also a fresh minty breeze. It has some fresh youthness to it, but not in a harsh way. It complements the ashy notes and makes it pop from the glass. This is a very good, simple peaty nose.

Mouth: It starts out honey sweet and spicy. The peat still shows up as ashes, but it’s not as dry as on the nose. The lemon finds a friend in some green apples. Overall it’s still salty and peaty. There’s some vanilla cream in the background which gives a nice base to the sweetness. It’s very viscous and oily on the palate

Finish: First comes a big spicy burst before it switches to an ashy and sweet character once again. There’s a savory bacon note coming along with the salty notes. The cask influence is strong but the oak is laid back. It’s not dry nor astringent. The honey, vanilla and butterscotch show up, stay a while and then fade away to give room to the ashy peat, which stays long after everything else. It’s a very pleasant finish overall. This is a great, straight forward peaty whisky.

Additional information
This was a special release in 2016. It has since then been added to the core range. It’s aged in refill american ex-bourbon oak barrels. The release is an homage to a statement from journalist Alfred Barnard in the 1880’s, referring to an 8 YO Lagavulin as ”exceptionally fine”.

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