Lagavulin

Date of tasting: 9/12 2007Appearance: Burnished copperNose: Deep and well balanced aromas. There are some peaty and feinty aromas, not so much smoke but more like earthy, peaty water and scorched plastic. Underneath that lies some fragrant overtones, lavender perhaps, and also a fine iron tone. The diluted dram reveals some hot sand, shoe polish, linseed oil and baby sick.Body: MediumPalate: Big, round and full flavored. Almost instantly comes an explosion of peaty smoke and some sort of malty richness. The finish is outstandingly long and powerful. It's sort of vegetative in a way and with a hint of nuttiness in the back of the tongue. I'm guessing this is the 35ppm variation because the smoke was not at all overwhelming, It's a sad thing they have reduced it to ! 43% as well, I would have loved this to be 46 or 48%, it just looses a bit of momentum as it is. Still a great dram.

Colour: Full amber, decent reddish coppery glints.Nose: To use this worn out word again: A classic nose. A nearly perfect combination of soft peat and clearly defined influence of a good sherry cask. The associations are very pleasureful and fit best into the typical Islay picture: Leather armchairs, sea salt, Latakia pipe tobacco, also cold cigar ash, burnt rubber and clean peat smoke, mellowed by dried fruits (dates and apricots) and brown sugar.Taste: Very full and warming, boring again to say it’s a “classic” mouthfeel by one of most outstanding “classic malts”. Perfectly balanced again and wonderfully confirmating the expectations of the nose: Tobacco, leather and so on, but now more accents on dried fruits, indian spices, forest honey and black pepper. Finish: Long and spicy, a heavy emphasis on the peppery notes.Conc.: This is a truly great dram made by distillery standing for what I do not appreciate very much, I see it as the flagship of Diageo’s movement which makes the whisky world poorer by not a cask (to my knowledge) being distributed by the independents and the expressions being something limited. But hey, if this is a great whisky what’s the matter? I have to acknowledge without envy, this is one of the most beautiful Islay whisky in my book.Tasting date: November/12th/2009

Date of tasting: 27/7 2008
Apperance: Dark, almost tawny. Chestnut perhaps.Nose: A very powerful and rich aroma. Loads of pungent and wet smoke, tar and old, soaked wood. There are also some dried fruits in the background, figs, raisins and maybe even some stewed apples. Steamed vegetables also came to mind. With water added the smoke seems to evaporate a little at first and reveal more estery notes, but the smoke comes back and blends in to create an impression of a flame treated basket of dried oranges.
Body: Quite heavy and oily.
Palate: Very sweet and mouthwarming overall. Less smoke then expected carried over at first. Then after a moment some pungent smoke and oily flavours rolls in.

The finish is very long and develops on a winey, peaty and fe! inty background.

Nose: Full blown peat, sherry, smoke, salt and brine. It's a very strong and direct nose. Impressive.
Taste: An explosion of peat straight away. Again some sweet sherry (reminds me of the Dist. Edition Pedro Ximenez). Sharp peppery taste on the tongue with lots of smoke and salt.
Finish: Really long and lasting. The salt sticks to your lips.
Comments: Most certainly the best Lagavulin I've tasted. So far one of the best (if not THE best) whisky I've ever had. What an experience!

Nose with a powerful but very fine peat. with a salty side.. Camphor and lemon. Very elegant, with lovely freshness.
The palate is marked by a very good balance between alcohol, flavor and interesting texture (a little oily but not too much). Very fine peat is present. Explosion of citrus on the palate.
Nice long finish. The empty glass resumed notes of citrus fruit and leaves an impression of freshness.

Colour: Pale yellow.
A pleasantly complex nose with clearly peaty notes , hints of pepper, maritime character. A wood fire on the seaside. Hot ash. Peat. Barbecue smoke.
A mouth even more complex than the nose. A delicious blend of green fruit, smoke, peat, all in remarkable balance. This mouth manages to seamlessly blend the freshness of the unripe fruit, green apple notes, more rustic farm peat and smoke.
The finish is remarkably long and hot. Still that nice presence of peat. A perfect extension of the mouth and nose.
A wonderful whisky that is primarily for subtle lovers of peat.

Colour: Pale yellow.
Nose: Peat Monster. So.. peat, fire wood , smoke (no smoke without fire is not it?). One slightly medicinal side. Maritime profile as well. Algae, sea spray, wet dog. All very cool. Discrete farmy notes. Then it shows an unexpected side, fruity. Fruity indeed somewhat artificial, right? Quite distinct pink Malabar! Yellow Haribo crocodile. Ripe pear. A little solvent.
Taste: Quite round, slightly pungent smoke.
Final:First wild earthy peat. This Single Malt calms down fairly quickly sliding toward a softer profile. Fruity and slightly sweet. Quite nice.

Comments: A nice complexity on the nose anyway. I'm not a big fan of peat, my grade suffers but I have no doubt that the peat lovers will rate higher. Or not ...

Color white wine
The nose starts high on the peat ash. Giving the impression of having extinguished a chimney fire with water which would have contained burned plastic. I think it will take some aeration time before the flavoring peaty / smoky deviates a bit. He is not heavy, but quite far. And I feel that other flavors are behind but did not reveal yet (if they reveal themselves ...). Um, it becomes perhaps vaguely farmy, but it's light. Peat has literally gone away.
I think I detect a taste of salted fish (preserved in salt). And now here, it feels crustaceans. The plate of langoustines at family meals near La Cotinière. But not the tray that smells too strong. But a delicate fragrance. Even if I hate seafood, I like this, it recalls memories (ok this is clearly and purely subjective but hey ...). With water, the smell of dressings are felt. See same tape gauze ...
Mouth hot, very warm and ashy. As if I was chewing the ashes of the fire present in the nose (but just cold ashes), roughly a ash freshly extinguished chewing gum. And this ash is transformed gradually into Lapsang Souchong like smoke. Finally it is in the same tones but more and finer.
It also becomes much more marine than in the beginning. Arguably the mouth follows the nose. It's not yucky: D. Finally I feel the taste of bouillon in which the prawns were cooked.
Final hoary and very, very long to stay in the same register. It returned gently tingling lips and cheeks much more. It is therefore more spicy and hot. In any case, we can say that the taste of ashes is really persistent. And the smell of brewed Lapsang Souchong is just really sensitive and falls at the right time.

Comment: I appreciate smoke, I was lucky with this sample! The nose is clearly good, as the rest. Just a reproach, smoke and ash a little too present on the nose. Fortunately, other flavors are behind because I really thought for a moment that would hide all strong odors. Well this is not a fat and heavy smoke. It is rather thin and "young" but quite present.
In any case, from A to Z is a good whisky for me

Color: white wine
Nose: On the peat, iodine and citrus.
Beautiful notes of cold ash and pepper mixed with fresh fruit and vanilla.
Water accentuates the iodine notes on algae.
Palate: Peat, on the cold ashes, is very present and licorice, citrus and some sweet notes.
The water reduces the peat and accentuates the fruity, citrus and exotic.
Long finish on peat and liquorice.

Color: Yellow

Nose: A bit of peat, a little bit of smoke, ash, gas, creamy, waxy, honeyed, dusty, lightly polish. A fairly specific profile I think. This is powerful! And the more you let it aerate more things to tell! It opens a jar of honey in the middle of a gas station in fact!
After a little more aeration, there was some citrus scents (lemon, grapefruit)

Taste: Ouch! it stings! Powerful!! It should not be far from 60 degrees there right? Of course the smoke, peat, slightly bitter, always that feeling of gas ... Also the cold ashes. Licorice also ... turpentine, a little camphor ...

Finish: Long, spicy, slightly bitter on the cold ashes, camphor.

Colour : Pale gold

Nose : We start with hints of citrus fruits (lemon and orange), pepper, spice and peat. We then find some smoke, caramelized apple pie, roasted almonds and nougatine.
Quite medicinal. Very well integrated alcohol. We finish with whiffs of soap. It's very nice, pretty straight-forward and warm (cosy). In the end, a little whiff of white wine.

Mouth : Woa ! It's pretty strong but very good. We still are on roasted almonds, bitter orange and nice touch of farmy peat. It's powerful but not agressive. It's delicately salty, gently smoky and nicely lemony. A little bit of liquorice, a lot of pepper (white). At the end, we can feel a woody bitterness, with some vanilla. The whisky dries the mouth a little. With water, its gets richer and rounder.

Finale : Long, warming, smoky and peaty. Light woody bitterness.

Conclusion : A pretty straight-forward whisky. Not much of complexity but it's great for peat lovers. It's really sharp and well-made. Great stuff !

The nose opens with a salty feeling, with a little pepper. It also has that je-ne-sais-quoi that makes me think of nuoc-mam. Everything is nice in any case. Then, the nose offers us cold ashes, citrus and peat. The set is very cool, but without falling into the iron. Aeration allows gourmet sugar notes (sweets with cream) to appear, and a very slight fruit (strawberry). This adds complexity to this marine dominance, all with excellent balance.

The palate is warm on golden grain, wood and vanilla. Then, quickly, powerful notes of peat smoke take over. The integration of alcohol is good, power as well. Good work. The finish has the coffee liqueur, which subsides with aeration, where the smoke is clearly dominant, without becoming annoying.

The final average is on the same tones that mouth: peat and smoke. However drier (salt, tar). We also have a little sweetness that disappears after aeration.

In conclusion, a good whisky, which has a good balance between the flavors.

Nose: As samples 1 and 3 of this WDTS we remain on the peat, but more fruity than the other two, yellow fruit (nectarine). Alcohol is very present, a BDF?, I add a little water in another glass with the rest of the sample. The peat is dominant, the yellow fruit is more discreet, cooked and licorice are revealed, followed by green vegetable (green beans raw).

Palate: Big peaty, very powerful alcohol + 60%, salt, grass and licorice. Profile for Octomore or Supernova. Young and fiery, full of peat, even if the ppm is very high, the other flavors are still discernible. Licorice, salty, woody and herbaceous, beautiful balance. Whisky for "Peat Lovers".

Colour: Pale Gold
Nose: Salty like a fresh sea breeze, vanilla, peat, citrus fruits, and fresh flowers combined with wet hay.
Taste: Full oily body, fine flavour of salt, lemony notes enhances the fine peat tones (ooh, ah...), smooth velvet-like sweetness.
Ending: Seaweed, vanilla, white peppery aftermath not to long but very delicate, strong lemony fruit-flavours at first but peppery bite prevails at the end, love it...

Nose: fruity, peaty (smoke, cigarettes), oily and fatty. Very acidic / citrusy, slightly medicinal, very cool (cold mint). licorice flavor.
The alcohol is well integrated and the balance is perfect.

Taste: Fresh, lemony, spicy, slightly peaty (cigarette)

Final: Peaty (dry smoke), lemony, spicy. Always the special and nice touch of icy mint.
Alcohol is slightly aggressive and the finish is long with hints of pear that appear after a while.

Pleasant to drink whiskey with a very cool side. Adding water makes it drier and easier to drink. The aroma of cigarette repulse me a bit.

Colour: straw.
Nose: quite round, yellow fruits, strong vanilla. Dry peat smoke present. A bit vegetal.
Mouth: rather sweet, strong smoke, vegetal peat. Vanilla.
Finish: rather long on smoke.
Little complex but well done.

Colour: Straw
Nose: Very powerful, it opens with a nice oily peat and lemon. A little iodine too, but the marine character is frankly overshadowed as peat is overwhelming, expressing of tar notes.. A hint of vanilla appears after a long aeration. Water does not significantly alter this profile, but allows the expression of bitter almond notes.
Taste: In line with the nose. Very powerful, thick, it combines thick peat and citric acid on the bottom of salt. Monolithic, but well done. With water, peat emerges even more.
Finish: Long, very peaty, especially the retro olfaction.
Conclusion: A whisky for peat freaks, great the evenings where you want a good peaty slap without efforts. Simple, but well done. I like.

Nose: Expressive, peat-peanut, also some fruity notes, apple. Ash, sea air, chocolate, lemon.
Mouth: Peat, ash, sea air, saly notes that are becoming bigger, silghtly fishy. Apple and lemon.
Final on peat, peanuts, sea air, tarry, leather.

A medicinal Laph ? At first nosing, I would have thought it was a peated Bunna. But the medicinal side(antiseptic) comes strongly.
On mouth, Laphroaig again. A medicinal and dry Laphroaig like IB’s know how to select. I like, because it evokes me a chimney fire with a freshness side (vegetal/citrusy).
The finale is long, peated and medicinal.
Simple but efficient feeling !

Colour: Straw
Nose : Intense phenols strike at first. This kind of powerful phenols trapped in a very sweetish, syrupy, almost sticky liqueur. Dried tangerine peel. Toffee-stuffed biscuits. Condensed milk, and some whiffs of white coffee. Despite its lightness, could that be a drawn from a refill butt?
Mouth: Soft and tasty. Phenolic and malty (butter cookie) and a hint of sugar coated peanuts (yep!). Still very intense, but the rather heavy alcohol (~53% ?) is well integrated and brings some softness and some boldness. Then turns grassier, with quite some salty liquorice (Hollander drops) and wormwood.
Finish: Long, salty, with a rather grassy bitterness.
Comment: A young peaty malt (Laphroaig?), intense, bold and tasty. The cask did a good job.

Nose: Starts on the lemon, honey, beeswax and a small Norwegian tar. Spices in the background And comes the plum brandy.
Taste: Slightly on alcohol and lemon quickly overshadowed by the tar. With mint syrup.
Finish: Quite long, always on the lemon and tobacco.

N: close enough to the sample No. 3 also on the grassy side and tea, beautiful notes of licorice, very balanced, oyster juice ,sea influence.
B: Oh yes, very nice balance, on the grass, tea, a little hot on alcohol, flavorings lining your mouth, salty point.
F: Long-balanced, very oily fatty ample.

Colour: Very light brown.
Nose: Strong classic peat reek. Photo developer. Strong alcohol, soft, very delicate sweet fruity notes (raspberry, dried pineapples) in the back. Later there are also fine and strange impressions like peanuts, musty wine cellar, old bread and burnt electric cables.
Taste: The strong alcohol on the palate confirms impression of a cask strength bottling. A giant peat block rests hard upon the taste buds, very one dimensional, the fruity notes are lost between peat and alcohol, sorry to say. Let’s see if some water helps to get them back ... Very weak beneath all that peat smoke, you need a lot of water to open the aromas, I guess the bottling about 60%. Here the picture is complete: Herbal wooden notes, peat smoke, strong chemical and soft sweet fruity notes which vanish very fast toward the medium long
Finish: - heavy accents on peat, burnt rubber and bitter herbs.
Conclusion: Pleasant, interesting all in all, but as said above, one dimensional, not balanced at all.
Guesswork: Here I guess a young Islay malt (Hard to say today since there are those heavily peated Speysiders today, since there is not much of the sea in the nose), bottled in cask strength (Independent single cask bottling).

Colour: Pale gold.
Nose: Peat and citrus nose first, very clear. Lemon, lemon marinade. Slightly minty. Gin. The nose is then very monolithic on this characteristic lemony peat.
Adding water makes the lemony side ahead but the peat is still very present.
Palate: The attack is soft and smooth, creamy mouth, and very peaty, and a little smoke. Again, it's a real standard.
The water exacerbates the mouth and biting it almost
Finish: Peat and smoke to the end. Very friendly ingestion. Suggests a high alcohol content.
Again, a little water and fuels exacerbates the final, giving it more length and power.

Comment: The archetype of whisky for a peat freak. A standard profile that came across so many times that we believe getting tired of.. And yet, it's always fun to come back. However, lack of originality, complexity and progressiveness for the connoisseur. Adding water brings him even more expressive.

appearance:
pale yellow, thin legs that flow rapidly
nose:
moderate to strong intensity, alcohol present (limit annoying), peat, pears, ashes (like a campfire shut down with water)
Taste:
moderate intensity, creamy attack, peat and ashes dominate, from the mid-palate the seemed shut down fire lightens again and is growing
finish:
average
With water:
with 3 drops of water: no change on the nose, the palate has less chili but the peat becomes slightly bitter, with 1/3 of water: the bitterness disappears, the whisky becomes more drinkable but loses personality, without waterm is the best for me
conclusion:
A whisky with a profile of young fiery peat monsters that pleases so much to a wide range of whisky addicts. This does not mean that it is my favorite whisky profile.

Nose: Clear, powerful, well present alcohol. Peaty, marine (salt, iodine), vegetable, fresh, crisp with nice fruity notes, fine (including citrus) on background slightly spicy vanilla oak.

Mouth: powerful, nearly unbalanced due to high salinity and a slight astringency, in addition to quite not molten alcohol.
Vegetal, peat, salty, brine, smoked fish, citrus finish that is long.
Best with a small trickle of water.

Marine typed whisky, peaty, very tasty but a bit simple and lacking balance on the palate.

Nose: Sharp (cask strength?) and fresh. Mineral and iodine / slightly peaty. Seems sweet and savory.

MOUTH: more mineral than peaty (a little on the new make) ... with a touch of marshmallow. touch of green apple. Very marine, iodine (the oyster). A little drying effect.

FINAL: peaty iodine reappeares. Mustard and tar at retro olfaction!

Well done, probably will thrill lovers of peat, but not me.

Nose: Light peat, fine, which is increasingly present during aeration. A little bit fruity. Alcohol present but not disturbing.
Palace: More fruity than peated in contrast to the nose. A little bit of mint.
Final: Intense and long and peaty.
A good whisky, pleasant.