This article looks in detail at the Lagavulin 8yo expression, which is quite the story. Over the years, I’ve had countless discussions with whisky enthusiasts from all backgrounds about that magic moment in their life: When did they first try a single malt, and which one was it? It astounds me how often people tell me their first single malt was Lagavulin. And, for the record, it was my first single malt, too.
It was the early 1990’s. I was drinking and enjoying Scotch whisky, but had only been exposed to blends. (For recent converts to the world of whisky who may not appreciate the context, bear in mind that in Australia at this time, the very best liquor outlets in the country stocked, at most, no more than perhaps nine to 14 different single malt expressions, representing perhaps only six to ten different distilleries). UDV had recently launched “The Classic Malts” range and my father-in-law-to-be returned from a trip to Scotland with a bottle of Lagavulin 16yo in his luggage.
He shared a generous dram of this mysterious liquid with me one Saturday afternoon. It was a road-to-Damascus moment. The scales fell from my eyes; my tastebuds awakened; and it lit a fire within me that would see me become deeply immersed in the world of whisky appreciation, eventually leading to several forms of involvement within the industry. I’ve long maintained that if I’d been handed a mild and generic Speysider that day, I’d have travelled a very different road. No, it was precisely that dry, smoky, powerful, pungent, and maritime shot to the palate that lit my passion.
You never forget your first love, and Lagavulin remains close to my heart. I’ve visited the distillery four times in the last eight years, and it’s a dearly beloved distillery on my whisky shelf at home. In the last 10 years or so, we’ve seen since other distilleries flood the market with multiple releases, lots of different age statements (and, more recently, lots of different no age statement releases), and an ever-expanding core-range of products in their portfolio. In today’s market and whisky climate, some distilleries feature a portfolio of up to seven or eight regular releases in their core-range before they even get to the special and once-off releases. This has had the impact of crowding the whisky shelves at the liquor store and creating fierce competition amongst the whisky companies as they race to put something new and innovative in front of an ever-thirsty consumer group that seems to have a shorter and shorter attention span.
Meanwhile, Lagavulin has avoided much of this practice and fanfare. For so many years, the regular 16yo release was the only Lagavulin available to many markets. The Distillers Edition joined the party back in the late 1990’s, and in the mid-2000’s we saw the release of the cask-strength 12yo. There have been other limited releases in the Diageo Special Releases range or well-aged super premium releases (such as the 37yo), but – for the most part – Lagavulin has been conspicuous for its modest array of official bottlings.
And so, despite being an extremely prevalent and high profile distillery for so many years (enough to be many people’s first ever single malt!), and despite being the highest selling Islay whisky for so long, its relatively low number of different releases has led to Lagavulin developing a slight enigmatic air about it. (If you’re keen for some fun reading, here’s a lighthearted article that looks at Lagavulin in depth and compares it directly to its neighbour, Laphroaig).
No surprise, therefore, that the world suddenly got very excited with the special release of the 8yo that accompanies the distillery’s 200th birthday. In an industry that has seen so many distilleries come and go since the late 1700’s, it is an amazing feat of endurance (with perhaps a stroke of good fortune) that a distillery such as Lagavulin has remained in operation for 200 years.
Of course, like any distillery, there has been change over the years – some of it more recent than you might appreciate. The Lagavulin I fell in love with in the early 1990’s was a particularly dry and very iodine-like whisky that was peated to 50ppm. In the mid 1990’s, the malt specification was changed, and Lagavulin switched to a peating level of 35ppm. By 2010, this lower peated spirit started to enter the vattings for the ubiquitous 16yo expression, and over the next few years, each subsequent batch slowly started to change as the proportion of lower peated spirit being used increased. Regular Lagavulin drinkers who purchased and consumed bottles frequently across each batch may not have noticed the change occurring, but if you can get hold of a bottle of 16yo bottled in the mid-2000’s and compare it to today’s bottling, you’ll experience two quite different whiskies.
(Incidentally, on the topic of peating levels, ppm, and Islay in general, you might find it helpful to read our feature piece, The complete guide to peat and peated whisky)
We’ll save the distillery feature profile for another day. For now, let’s focus on the new Lagavulin 8yo bicentenary bottling, and see what it has to offer. The peatiness we perceive in whisky reduces with age and time in the cask, so it follows that an 8yo should offer a fair whack of peat compared to its older siblings. Let’s see how it goes:
Lagavulin 8yo, 48% ABV, 200th Anniversary Limited Edition, matured exclusively in refill American oak casks
Lagavulin 8yo
Colour: A very pale white wine
Nose: The nose has loads of earthy, floral peat, but not as much smoke. There are hints of brine and drying seaweed washed up on the beach in the sun. Smoked haddock. And, sitting just beneath the peat, there lies a sweet biscuity note. With time, this evolves to a more cereal-like note, almost akin to cornflakes.
Palate: The first thing that struck me before discerning or analysing any flavours was the amazingly syrupy mouthfeel. It’s oily, juicy, and has an exceptionally viscous texture. At 48%, the heat and the alcohol balance are near perfect.
Flavourwise, it is a rich and complex experience that is – strangely – both heavy and light; bright and yet brooding. The peat is heavy and, in the absence of a lot of smoke, seemingly tries to weigh the whisky down. In contrast to this, there is some malty sweetness and a vibrant “cleanliness” that lifts the dram – no doubt helped by its youthfulness. There are hints of black jelly babies, coal tar soap (without being alkaline), and the bitterness you associate with tasting heavily charred (burnt), barbecued meat. The maritime notes that were prevalent on the nose are less apparent on the palate.
Finish: Dense, drying, acrid and smoky, and plying a balanced line between sweetness and bitterness.
Comments: Where to start? Well, firstly, this is very obvious proof that a whisky doesn’t have to be old or even over 10 years to reach and display quality. It’s a clean dram, and the alcohol and texture is as near perfect as any dram I can recall. If there is an absence of oak or telling wood influence, it is more than made up for by the dense peatiness. The famous Lagavulin dry smoke waits until the finish to really reveal itself, but – as you’d hope and expect – it delivers with style and finesse. This is a wonderful whisky that you could happily sit on all night and not want for much more. Top marks, Diageo.
Happy birthday to the team at Lagavulin (love your work, Georgie!) and well done to all involved over the last 200 years!
Cheers,
AD
Lagavulin 8yo was released in the UK in March with an RRP of £51. Diageo Australia advise that the whisky will arrive and launch officially in Australia in August, 2016.
PS…Lagavulin appears in Whisky & Wisdom’s feature article, “The most beautiful distilleries in Scotland”, which you can read here.
[UPDATE: Whisky & Wisdom attended the Lagavulin 8yo launch in Sydney, which took place in September. Read all about it here.
Great write up Andrew, and big kudos to Lagavulin / Diageo for releasing something that has both a solid ABV and an age statement!