Whisky Review: Game of Thrones House Lannister Lagavulin 9 Year

Right off the bat, I know essentially nothing about Game of Thrones. I tried to read the books, but quickly gave up and have never seen anything from the show beyond GIFs. So my only interest here is in the whisky itself.

This particular Lagavulin is an interesting choice in a number of ways. First, like the 8 Year released for the distillery's 200th anniversary, it has an age statement under ten years old. Lagavulin has traditionally put out a line about their spirit needing a significant amount of time to mature, which makes sense given their squat stills and wide cuts. The wild popularity of their annual 12 Year batch strength release has given something of a lie to that assertion, but it's still somewhat surprising that they have chosen to represent themselves with even younger releases over the last few years.

This whisky is bottled at 46%, possibly without chill filtration but probably with coloring.

Game of Thrones House Lannister Lagavulin 9 Year

Nose: rich but not overwhelming peat smoke, incense, caramel, moderate oak, barbecue sauce, bubblegum, vanilla frosting, fruity ester top notes, curing plastic and generic soap (in a good way?). After adding a few drops of water the malt moves forward, the peat becomes more mossy, and a lot of the sweeter overtones move into the background.

Taste: malt and cask sweetness up front, balanced with a moderate amount of oak tannins and some vaguely fruity overtones, fading into bittersweet oak with rising dry peat smoke beginning in the middle and flowing into the back end. After dilution the malty sweetness is amplified and pushes the oak tannins towards the back without becoming cloying, while the peat smoke becomes more incense-like at the back.

Finish: thick dry peat smoke, moderate oak tannins, background malt sweetness, vague fruitiness

It's hard to understate how much this whisky has been a pleasant surprise. My mixed experience with the 8 Year made me a little bit wary, but how often do we get new Lagavulins? So I took the plunge and have been richly rewarded. Unlike its more rough hewn younger sibling, this straddles the line between it and the more refined 16 Year, albeit without the alcoholic strength of the 12 Year. But whatever, because this is half the price of the bruiser and less than the 16 Year in most markets.

While the nose is the star of this show, the flavors and finish are nothing to sniff at either. I've been skeptical about Diageo's ability to not screw up their own whiskies and this goes some way towards restoring my faith. Heck, I might even buy a second bottles, which almost never happens these days.

Whisky Review: Lagavulin 8 Year 200th Anniversary Edition

Lagavulin's 200th anniversary was celebrated in 2016. Referencing a quote from Alfred Barnard, who visited the distillery in 1886 and remarked that he had tasted a particularly fine 8 year old whisky, they decided to try to create an homage to that style.

Since that first release the 8 Year has been added to the regular lineup, alongside the standard 16 Year and Distiller's Edition plus the semi-regular 12 Year annual release.

This whisky was aged in what I'm guessing were all refill ex-bourbon hogsheads, then bottled at 48% possibly with added color.

Thanks to Florin for this bottle split.

Lagavulin 8 Year

Nose: lots of raw, unburnt peat, fresh green malt, a rounder grainy note, hints of oak in the background, plastic. After adding a few drops of water the malt and peat integrate, but the profile remains similar overall.

Taste: strong malt sweetness with some heat up front, peat starts in the background around the middle and shifts into the foreground near the back, vague fruity overtones throughout. After dilution the flavors get a bit brighter and the peat notes are stronger, but the overall structure remains the same.

Finish: raw peat, bittersweet, slightly tannic

Whether or not this is your jam, I think they accomplished their goal of creating an "older" style of whisky. For all that we complain about how raw the whiskies coming out of new distilleries are, that's what most people would have been drinking before the 20th century. In a sense, it's an unfair advantage for the older distilleries that were established when no one expected their spirit to be aged for at least a decade.

At the same time, this isn't the same raw distillate that would have been coming off Lagavulin's stills when it was established. Their processes are built towards their core 16 Year release and I suspect that an 8 year old whisky back then would have potentially offered something more interesting than this. My expectations may have been too high after trying younger bourbon cask Lagavulin at the distillery, but this was an absolute let down. At least I didn't have to slog through more than half a bottle?

Whisky Review: Classic of Islay Cask #530

Classic of Islay is a mystery malt. Bottled by Jack Weibers Whisky World in Germany, it has long been rumored that the source of the casks is the Lagavulin distillery. That would make them one of if not the only independently bottled Lagavulin on the market today. How this would be is a significant question as Lagavulin already sells very few casks to blenders, as the demand for the OB single malts already consumes the vast majority of their supply. Whatever the source, they have consistently delivered full strength heavily peated sherry cask whisky for prices that are a little hard to believe by the current standards of the industry. Let's see if it's too good to be true.

This whisky was bottled in 2014 at 56%, without coloring or chill filtration.

Classic of Islay Cask #530

Nose: seaweed, herbal/vegetal peat, dry smoke, moderate American oak, background sherry, cured meat/ham

Taste: a bittersweet balance of sherry and oak throughout, only slightly tannic, dry peat and more rounded emerge at the back, and the oak becomes more toasty

Finish: cold smoke, herbal peat, oak, sherry residue

While this malt has faded somewhat since I first opened the bottle, it's still a very solid experience. The flavors could do with some more complexity, but the aromas and finish elevate it above the price point. Even if this is Caol Ila rather than Lagavulin, it's still quite a deal in comparison to the sub-10 year old Caol Ila single casks that have been hitting the market at over $100 lately.

Diluted to 50%

Nose: a solid amount of American oak, dry peat smoke, ham, subtle sherry, plums, herbal, cold tea,

Taste: sherried sweetness up front and through the middle, not particularly tannic American oak takes over around the middle, very little peat until the very back, joined by a touch of herbal ham and some more rounded sherry

Finish: somewhat thin and indistinct, cold smoke, mild oak, herbal peat

This isn't precisely bad, but the flavors really seems lacking in peat. While not overly complex, the aromas have some nice touches that tend towards the dry side, which is a nice change of pace for a sherry cask malt.

Diluted to 45%

Nose: strong chlorine and vegetal peat, cold smoke, sour sherry, cheap beef jerky, green onions, soy sauce

Taste: rather thin, moderately sweet up front, then a muddle of oak and sherry around the middle, becoming more tannic with intruding peat smoke at the back

Finish: soft American oak, barrel char, cacao nibs, cold smoke, bittersweet

At this strength the nose is nearly unpleasant, with strong chemical notes and little sherry to balance the youthfulness. The flavors are thin and somewhat indistinct until the finish, but generally inoffensive. Overall it feels like there are very good reasons for this cask to have been bottled at full strength - while I can't quite say that it entirely falls apart, much of the appeal is lost by diluting it this far.

After trying a 9 year old first-fill sherry cask during the warehouse tasting at Lagavulin, I'm willing to say that this is at least in the same ballpark. There's a lot of overlap in my tasting notes, so even if that's not actually where it's from you're probably getting something that does a decent impression. With that said, it sounds like not every cask is a winner, but at least you won't be out a ton of money if you get one that isn't quite up to snuff.

Whisky Review: Lagavulin Distillers Edition 1996/2012

Diageo regularly puts out 'Distillers Editions' of their standard range, which are all whiskies that have been 'extra matured' in some kind of wine cask. I've covered Talisker's a couple of times before, but this is the first time trying one from another distillery.

The DE from Lagavulin gets extra time in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks, which is a particularly sweet form of sherry made from sun dried grapes.

Thanks to @JCL1118 for the sample.

Lagavulin Distillers Edition 1996/2012

Nose: something rubbery hangs over all of the odors, jammy fruit, juicy raisins, mossy peat, undercurrent of dank sherry, a touch of bacon (more with time) and something floral, malt buried under everything else, with a growing cedar note over time. After adding a few drops of water, the sherry retreats a bit in favor of mossy peat and greener notes, with more oak and malt, plus a touch of vanilla and salt.

Taste: sherried sweetness that waxes and wanes across the palate, peppery oak comes in strong mid-palate then slowly fades, some of the apples I found in Lagavulin's new make (but with an unpleasantly sour edge) near the back, peat waits until the back to show up. After dilution, the tastes become much flatter, while the sherry retreats and tucks inside the oak but the peat holds strong, with significantly less complexity overall.

Finish: peppery oak, moderate peat, significant sherry, some malt, floral perfume (not quite in a good way)

While I found that this one improved over multiple tastings, it never presented what I would consider to be a compelling package. If you want sherry, the standard 16 Year doesn't lack (at least for the time being). Here the balance feels like it has shifted too far and the spirit has almost lost its fight with the casks. There are those who enjoy it quite a bit more, so don't take my word as final, but, especially considering the extra price that the DE commands over the standard 16 Year, it will not be finding a place on my shelf.

Scotland 2013: Lagavulin Warehouse Demonstration

After my tour of the distillery, I trooped down to one of Lagavulin's dunnage warehouses for the Warehouse Demonstration at 10:30 AM (thankfully my Scottish breakfast was still holding strong). This is a tasting of whiskies of various ages straight from the casks led by Iain McArthur, who has been a Lagavulin employee for 40 years and is now the warehouse manager. Instead of burying the lede, I'll just say up front that this was hands down the best tasting I did during my entire trip. If you're going to be on Islay and like peated whisky, this is the one tasting that I would say is a must. It's well done, the whisky is incredible, and the price is an absolute steal at £15.

Iain in front of the casks ready for tasting

Lagavulin keeps about 7,000 casks on site and another 6,000 casks in the bonded warehouses at the old Port Ellen distillery. 95% of what they make is destined for single malts and all of it is aged on Islay, unlike its sister distillery Caol Ila, where most of the spirit is taken to the mainland by tanker truck. Iain also mentioned that Lagavulin will regularly use a single cask for up to 100 years over the course of multiple fillings.

While the portions were extremely generous 40-50 mL pours (I actually had to dump a decent number out instead of finishing them), notes are somewhat abbreviated as I was trying to keep up with the progress of the demonstration.

Lagavulin New Make

Nose: very clean smoke, lightly malty, a little medicinal, a little plastic

Taste: extremely sweet, fruity, rose, slightly astringent peat, vegetal, strong apple notes in the middle

I was, to put it mildly, surprised by how good the new make tasted. Given the setup of Lagavulin's stills, I expected something of a hot mess, with off notes from the heads and tails clashing with the malt core. Instead, it was almost refined and actually quite drinkable. The apple notes were my favorite part, as they were a nice counterpoint to the fresh peat. I genuinely wish Lagavulin would bottle and sell this stuff - I would buy it in a heartbeat.

9 Year Old First Fill Sherry Cask - 58%

Nose: dry, peaty, medicinal, a little malt, a little bacon, with water more new make notes come out

Taste: thick sherry up front, mildly peaty with apples at the back, a little oak, bittersweet overall, cacao and more oak come out with water

This was, as Iain put it, 'baby Lagavulin'. The sherry casks had added their traditional layer to the spirit, but it lacked the refinement and nuance of older whisky.

11 Year Old Refill Bourbon Cask - 56%

Nose: malty, salty bacon, bourbon barrel (caramel, oak, vanilla), just a hint of new make, not a lot of peat, light apples, more new make notes after adding water

Taste: very sweet, bourbon barrel influence is clear, more integrated peat, apple. After adding water, it was less sweet with more oak, chocolate in the middle, more fruity and stronger barrel influence.

This was the essence of a good bourbon barrel peated whisky. The sweet caramel and vanilla were a perfect balance to the rashers of salty bacon and peat. It wasn't subtle, but it was incredibly tasty. I would love to be able to buy a bottle of this.

14 Year Old Sherry Cask - 56.47%

Nose: more noticeable sherry, ethereal, apples/new make, malty, rose. After adding water, it was more vegetal with stronger new make notes, but salty bacon popped out.

Taste: light but present sherry, lots of apples, light integrated peat, cacao, malty. After adding water, it was more malty, with stronger chocolate and green notes.

This was Lagavulin starting to hit its stride. The sherry was much more integrated than in the 9 year old, with some more nuanced flavors starting to come out. The rose notes in the nose were particularly fun and the taste was becoming decadent with the sherry turning into chocolate.

Feis Ila 2013 Festival Bottling

Nose: closer to the OB 16 - fruity, peat, plastic?, apple blossom, salty bacon, floral

Taste: sherry, oak, pepper, apples, peat, malt, new make, apple blossom

This was a nice, but after the rest of the line-up, less exciting dram. If you like the standard Lagavulin releases, you're almost guaranteed to like this one. So while I enjoyed it, I didn't feel sufficiently attached to it to buy a bottle from the visitor center, both because of the price and (more importantly) because I didn't want to carry around a whole bottle for the rest of my trip. I do wish they had sold a few cask samples as well - I would have snapped up a 200 or 375 mL bottle of any one of the casks I sampled that day. And given the across-the-board quality, I probably would have bought a sample from a cask that hand't been in the line-up.

Getting to valinch out 31 year old Lagavulin from the cask - now that's a birthday present

31 Year Old Refill Whisky Cask (Dewars)

Nose: floral/herbal, vanilla, light oak, light peat, bacon/salt - more malty with water

Taste: very sweet, tons of vanilla at the back, vegetal, apples, pepper - with water more barrel character, greener, more peat, pepper, and oak

It's difficult to put into words just how good this whisky was. While it didn't have the traditional Lagavulin sherry, everything else about it perfectly encapsulated the distillery. The cask and spirit were in exquisite balance and most shockingly of all, the huge apple notes from the new make spirit were back, providing a burst of freshness in a rather old whisky. This was easily the whisky highlight of my trip. It blows my mind that the distillery is willing to serve us this alongside all of the other casks for a pretty minimal outlay considering the prices of older Lagavulin releases these days. I consider myself very fortunate to have sampled it, even if it will be nothing more than a memory.

Casks resting in the warehouse, waiting to see the light of day sometime in the future

After the demonstration wrapped up, I very carefully got back on my bike for the ride to Ardbeg. I was, to put it mildly, pretty lit from half a dozen cask strength drams, so I was very, very thankful to be riding. If you're getting around by car, it is an absolute necessity to have someone else behind the wheel. It would take hours at minimum to sober up from a tasting of this magnitude.

For another perspective on this tasting only a few days apart from mine, check out the The Pyromaniacs.

Scotland 2013: Lagavulin and Ardbeg Distillery Tours

It was a slightly damp morning when I got up. After wolfing down breakfast, I hopped on my bike and zipped down the road towards my 10:30 appointment at Lagavulin, aided by the stiff west wind at my back. I made there with a few minutes to spare and eventually found a railing where I could lock up my bike. I turned out that I was going to get a nearly private tour, as only two more people were scheduled and they barely arrived in time. Sadly I was told that pictures wouldn't be allowed inside the distillery - a policy that varied widely from place to place and never seemed to have coherent rationals.

Delivering malt to the distillery

Justina took us into the old malt barn, which now serves as storage space for the distillery. Lagavulin did its own malting up until the 1970s, but now gets malt exclusively from Port Ellen at 38 PPM spec. They consume on average 125 tons of malt per week, less than half of what their sister distillery Caol Ila uses. We learned that the Port Ellen malt process takes 2-3 days vs. 9-10 when done by hand. The mechanical malting process involved smoking the barley with peat for ~16 hours, then the malt is checked for phenol content and separated out for their various customers - this suggests that there is a significant amount of variability, even in what is supposed to be an industrial process. Some comes out with a high enough phenol content to satisfy Ardbeg (55 PPM), while some is low enough for Bowmore (25 PPM) - Port Ellen doesn't actually use different processes for the different malts they sell to the various distilleries.

Lagavulin's water source is so peaty that it's brown by the time it gets to the distillery

Lagavulin uses a single large (21,000 L) mash tun, which they can charge four times at day when running full tilt. The larch washbacks are roughly the same size, which are rotated roughly every five hours to give them a bit of time to clean things out before the next mash is cycled in. Their fermentation is fairly standard - commercial yeast, 55 hour fermentation ending around 8% ABV. Given that much of Lagavulin's process up to this point appears to be relatively 'standard', I'm going to chalk a lot of its unique character up to its stills (one of the few pictures I was able to get of the inside of the distillery).

Lagavulin has two pairs of wash and spirit stills, which are built such that they will largely concentrate the constituents of the wash rather than separating them, like many other stills. They are short, squat, and bulbous, with steeply descending lyne arms. Lagavulin also loads their stills nearly to capacity and uses a fairly short foreshots cut (72-70%) - this is also a much lower maximum proof due to the lack of reflux - with a fairly broad spirit cut (70-62%) that dips down into what many other distilleries would consider feints. These features and procedures mean that there is very little reflux or copper contact during distillation, which produces a spirit that has significant amount of both foreshots (fruity esters) and feints (phenols, fusel oils). This gives Lagavulin a significant depth and breadth of character, but also usually requires that it be aged for a fairly long time to really hit its stride, since the esters and fusel oils need time and oxygen to covert into more pleasantly flavored compounds.

The docks that used to service the distillery before roll-on ferry service became available

Lagavulin is one of the few large distilleries with sufficiently large demand for their single malt whiskies that very little of their output goes into blends - 95/5 seems to be the split I see quoted most often. As an interesting side-note, Justina mentioned that production at Lagavulin had ramped up during the late 90s, which means that stock should be hitting the right age for their standard 16 year old whisky now or in the near future. Perhaps part of the reason why Diageo has decided to hold down prices on an in-demand bottle? Though it doesn't explain the sky-high prices of the cask strength 12 year old and PX-finished Distillers Edition 'special releases' that they put out every year.

After the tour wrapped up, I trooped down to one of Lagavulin's warehouses for a very special tasting. That will be a post of its own, but suffice it to say that it was an experience.

Somewhat tipsy after half a dozen cask strength drams (I repeatedly told people that part of the reason I was biking was that that way I was only a threat to myself), I set off further down the road towards Ardbeg, the last of the Kildalton distilleries on my itinerary.

Ardbeg's pagodas peeked out from the gently rolling hills, opening up to another pretty bay, which gave the distillery its name (Ardbeg means 'small promontory'). The distillery is a maze of buildings, all put up at different phases of its life.

The first order of business was getting some food into myself. Thankfully Ardbeg has a nice cafe inside their visitor center, which was rebuilt from one of their old malting kilns. After a pleasant lunch and a chat with a local couple who used to live in the PNW, I set off with a small group for our tour of the distillery.

Neil led us into what used to be one of Ardbeg's malt bins, which are now no long used. We began with a bit of history, describing the ups and downs in the distillery's fortunes. We spent some time discussing recent history - the rescue of the distillery from outright ruin in 1997 when Glenmorangie purchased it and the changes wrought since Glenmorangie was brought into the LVMH fold in 2004. From there we walked through the old malt bins.

After talking about the difficulties and near tragedies of working in the old kilns and malt bins, Neil made was I thought was the most incisive point of the whole tour - that "there are no stories" attached to the newer, more efficient equipment. Old methods were significantly more labor intensive and produced much more batch variation - for instance, peating used to be assessed 'organoleptically', i.e. by tasting the malt to decide when it was done - but the new equipment has largely removed the human element from the production process. Malt is now purchased at spec (55 PPM) from Port Ellen, delivered to the malt bins by truck, then fed into the mill and mashed automatically. Speaking of their mash tun, Ardbeg is in the peculiar situation of having left their old cast iron mash tun in place, then inserted a new stainless steel one inside it.

This bothered me a little bit - if you're going to upgrade to stainless steel, then just do it, don't try to hide behind the old façade - but ultimately it's a quibble. However, one nice feature of the new mash tun is that it automatically cleans itself - distillery workers no longer have to climbing inside to wash it out by hand.

Ardbeg does keep one piece of tradition by using wooden washbacks. These are about the same size as Lagavulin's at 23,500 liters. Fermentation has become shorter by about ten hours since the early 2000s, coming down to a more 'standard' 55 hours with a strength of 8% ABV. I do have to wonder if this change has been part of why Ardbeg's spirit has become less complex - there's less time for the yeast to develop flavors, instead focusing on converting the starch into alcohol, which will produce fewer interesting side-products during fermentation. Each washback holds enough wort for two wash still charges - half is taken out, then the second half is removed five hours later after the first wash still run.

The view out of the room where the washbacks are located is rather nice

Ardbeg has some rather peculiar stills. To begin with they only have a single pair of stills - one wash still and one spirit still. Second, they are very short stills - shorter even than Laphroaig's tiny spirit stills - which should reduce copper contact. With that said, they still have plenty of capacity - the wash still is 18,770 liters and the spirit still is 16,957 liters. The spirit still actually has more capacity than any other spirit still on the island, with the exception of Caol Ila's monsters. The stills are fairly highly charged - the wash still is filled to 64% and the spirit still to 81%, which should reduce copper contact. However, the stills both have a lamp glass shape and slightly rising lyne arms, which will increase reflux, though this is balanced by the fact that they still have fairly wide necks. To add to this, the spirit still has a purifier - basically a piece of copper pipe that connects the lyne arm back to the pot of the still. What this does is return heavier vapor and anything that condenses in the lyne arm back to the pot for redistillation, effectively increasing reflux. All of this is a peculiar mix, which goes a way towards explaining the particular qualities of Ardbeg's whisky - despite very high peating levels, it isn't necessarily more smoky than Laphroaig or even Lagavulin, with a lot lighter esters and an oily character.

Ardbeg, as with most distilleries, proofs their new make spirit down to 63.5% and fills most of it into first and second-fill ex-bourbon casks. Smaller amounts are filled into sherry casks and French oak casks, for their Uigeadail and Coryvrecken expressions. Displaying the influence of Glenmorangie's Bill Lumsden, a variety of other casks, such as marsala, fino sherry, and French wine casks are also used.

French wine casks with their distinctive hoops in the foreground left and stacked up in the middle right

One example up close

After discussing casks, we went into one of the warehouses for the 'Deconstructing the Dram' tasting. As with the Lagavulin tasting, that will have to be its own post.

Once again fairly tipsy, I departed from Ardbeg. I briefly considered continuing down the road to view the Kildalton Cross, but thought better of it, given that it had been a long day and the wind was still blowing rather hard out of the west. That made for a slow trip back to Port Ellen, but I got there without too much trouble. I made a fairly early night of it, knowing that I had to get most of the way around Loch Indaal the next day.

Whisky Review: Classic Malts Isles of Scotland Collection

This is one of Diageo's 3x200 mL sets that collect whiskies from their Classic Malts under some sort of theme. This set pulls together their whiskies from the islands of Skye and Islay, which share some similarities in production methods and flavor. However there are some major differences, such as the six years between the youngest and the oldest whisky in this pack.

The packaging is absolutely top-notch and would make a fantastic gift for any whisky-loving friend as you get to try three different whiskies for roughly the price of one. And importantly for me, it's the only one of the Classic Malts sets that I've seen for sale in the United States, via City Wine Cellar in Staten Island, NY. If you've been looking to sample some fine peated whiskies, this is a very reasonable way to do so.

Talisker 10 Year Old 

Nose: mild but definitely present vegetal peat, briny, roasted vegetables, dry-ish, ripe apples, ash/cigarettes, light honied malt, brown/wood sugar, caramel, slightly charred oak, a hint of sherry and vanilla. After adding a few drops of water, the nose becomes earthier, with more of a barbecue note and a touch of balsamic vinegar, creamier and with a stronger sherry presence

Taste: honied, then sugary malt up front, then a touch of sherry and fruit, brine, and a dash of black pepper, followed by mild vegetal/smokey peat and oak tannins. After dilution, the flavors become more integrated, with the sweetness extending back and the peat extending forward on the palate, a definite raspberry note develops mid-palate, plus more tannic oak

Finish: mild peat, slightly bitter, off-dry sherry (amontillado?), lingering pepper. After dilution some floral notes emerge, with more subdued peat and pepper

Talisker 10 is bottled at their traditional 45.8% ABV. The distillery peats its malt to a relatively high 20 PPM, which is about half of the level of the other two Islay whiskies. Though oddly, one time that I was sampling this whisky, the peat seemed to almost disappear after adding water, leaving something that reminded me strongly of Hazelburn.

I've gotten to try this one before and my more hurried impression jibes fairly well with what I got out of the whisky after more time. I've also tried its more sherried sibling, Talisker Distiller's Edition, and they're an interesting contrast. Now I can definitely see how the underlying malt is modified by the extra aging in amaroso sherry casks. The basic Talisker malt seems to get just a hint of fruitiness that reminds me of sherry, which suggests that there's at least a little bit of sherried malt in there already. However, I also feel like the DE gets slightly better cask selection, with more robust flavors than its more humble sibling. Given that the Distiller's Edition can go for as little as $15 more than the 10 Year, I'd say its worth putting up the extra cash, especially if you like the peat/sherry combo.

Caol Ila 12 Year Old

Nose: lighter, more refined vegetal peat, a touch of sweet barbecue, gentle brine, almonds/marzipan, bread/pastry, fruity bubblegum, lemon verbena, pine/juniper, rubbery malt. After adding some water, it becomes maltier and earthier, with spritz cookies and a bit of soap or fresh laundry.

Taste: thin, creamy, sugary, malty sweetness up front, then pine/juniper, black pepper, and mild peat. After dilution, it becomes sweeter and more integrated, with the malt and peat extending further back and forward, respectively, overlapping with the black pepper.

Finish: light peat/malt, a trace of bitter cacao, residual pepper, a hint of lemon

Caol Ila is a new one for me and it's quite the treat to try this Islay whisky. The distillery is located in Port Askaig near the northeast corner of the island, just down the road from Bunnahabhain. Established in 1846, the distillery initially did not fare well, but has gone on to become one of the most productive distilleries on the island, providing the bulk of Diageo's peated whisky needs. The entry-level version is bottled at 43%, like most of the Dieageo's single malts. Unlike the other two whiskies in this set, Caol Ila 12 comes from whisky aged entirely in ex-bourbon casks, without any sherry influence. While there is a bit of fruitiness, the focus is definitely on the interaction between the malt and peat. I was particularly intrigued by the pine/juniper notes I found in the whisky, which gives it a gin/genever sort of quality. I was also pleased at how well it stood up to dilution, given the relatively low bottling strength. Overall, a very tasty single malt that makes me look forward to digging into the Caol Ila Collection I picked up recently, which includes the Cask Strength and 18 Year Old versions alongside the standard 12 Year Old.

Lagavulin 16 Year Old

Nose: very delicate, creamy, vegetal peat, underlying richness, light oloroso sherry with a bit of sweetness, slightly malty, brine, barbecue. After adding water, the barbecue moves forward, with some meaty bacon, smokier, less vegetal peat, greenish malt/oats, and floral/fruity sherry.

Taste: sherry/wine/vinegar sweet/sour up front, then berries, black pepper and malt, followed by vegetal/ashy peat and mild oak. After dilution, the opening becomes more sweetly fruity, which lingers throughout the sip, the peat retreats slightly and becomes more vegetal than smoky, and the oak becomes more bitter.

Finish: black pepper, sherry, a touch of peat, anise, and oak tannins

Lagavulin is Diageo's second Islay distillery. The distillery was founded in 1816 in the town of Port Ellen, alongside two other well-known Islay distilleries, Ardbeg and Laphroaig. Its history with the latter is particularly convoluted, as there were numerous conflicts between Lagavulin and Laphroaig, with an attempt made in 1908 and continuing until 1962 within Lagavulin to copy Laphroaig's whisky with an operation called Malt Mill. The unrealized goal was to push Laphroaig out of business, but it was obviously unsuccessful and Malt Mill was folded back into Lagavulin when the distillery was rebuilt in the 1960s.

For much of Lagavulin's recent history, the 16 year old expression was the only one available. The passing of the 1990s brought out the Pedro Ximenez-finished Distiller's Edition, which was later joined by a cask-strength 12 year old, in addition to sporadic 20+ year old special releases. Through it all the 16 YO has formed the core of the brand and its not hard to see why. While both Lagavulin and Caol Ila get their peated malt (~35 PPM) from Port Ellen and the final whiskies are bottled at the same 43% ABV, their products are very different. Lagavulin has been smoothed by by its extra four years in oak, as well as the addition of sherry cask-aged whisky into the mix. While Caol Ila is comparatively fresh and malty, Lagavulin seems more august, with more barbecue-like peat and the rich fruitiness of sherry.

Overall, if you haven't tried any of the whiskies in this collection, I would highly recommend picking it up. It's a great way to get to compare a very fine set of peating whiskies without spending too much money. I don't think I can pick a favorite out of the bunch as they all have their charms, but the Talisker and Lagavulin might edge out the Caol Ila by a hair. I'll be very interested to try Caol Ila 18 and see if a few extra years in oak give it some extra body to help compete with the sherried richness of the other two. However, in terms of value, I think the Talisker wins among this bunch as it has exceedingly good balance and the lowest price point out of the three. The Lagavulin was very good, but I'm not sure if it's sufficiently better to make me want to pay for a full bottle.