Lagavulin 16 Year

Lagavulin isn't 'smokey,' its peat moves into a weird territory of Lapsang Souchong tea and pipe tobacco.

Lagavulin is also a classic example of how smoke isn't a blunt instrument that covers everything in a fog, but an element that works in harmony with all the flavours produced during distillation and maturation. 

Nose: There’s peat - a big, pungent whack of it, laced with smoked fish and driftwood and salty rocks. But underneath that, there’s a great big ocean of sweet, caramelised malt, all baked apples and cobbler crust.

Palate: At first, it’s like a mouthful of recently extinguished ashes—charred, powdery, astringent—but then a lush, maritime garden quickly comes into focus. Over several minutes in the glass, ghosts of fruit emerge—orange and red cherry mostly—but never seem to break through the low-hanging haze.