Lagavulin 10 Year

What the hell was Lagavulin thinking putting this out ? Maybe that’s why it went straight to travel retail. Nose is fine, classic phenolic Lag. But wow...what a step down in the palette. Brash in a bad way, disjointed, and trying to find its place between the citrus, smoke, sea spray, and mineral. in last night’s tasting at @Richard-ModernDrinking’s, I’m so glad I didn’t have this after the Ardbeg 19 or Octomore 10... I’d have been much harsher.

16 yr

How old do you want your Lagavulin? After giving us an eight-year-old for its 200th anniversary and a nine-year-old for the Game of Thrones series, Lagavulin has now released a decade-strong travel retail exclusive. With an upcoming 11-year-old Nick Offerman edition bridging the gap to the annual 12-year release, can 13, 14 and 15 be far behind? As a brand extension strategy, numbers seem more defensible than Vikings, and at a mere 40 pounds at Heathrow the stakes for punters are low even if the expectations are high on the back of the two younger releases. It’s bottled at 43%, which is in line with the 16 but three points less than the 8 and 9. The label speaks of a mix of rejuvenated and ex-bourbon casks, which is hard to parse: presumably it’s all ex-bourbon casks, but some of them have been re-toasted. We’re off to a good start with the nose, which is very promising: a rich and sweet toffee that should be very accessible for people offput by the more aggressive aromas of the 16. There’s a delicate peat too, but the impression is predominantly caramelized sugar. The palate is a little confused, however, and it took a couple of tastings on separate nights to get a partial handle on it. What’s certain is that it’s surprisingly light at first. After that I struggled to get a consistent reading. On the first tasting, there was a beat before the peat kicked in, which it did with a rumble that built up to a tongue-numbing level, albeit with a sweet undertone. I got a burst of caramel at the end but not much after that: the finish was a little short and flat. Take two suggested I needed to reset my expectations and consider this a delicate and subtle Lagavulin, an oxymoron if ever there was one, yet I’m still filling in the blanks between the soft start and the caramel drizzle at the end. Is there any flavor in the mid-palate to speak of? All in all, it’s rather underwhelming. Was Lagavulin trying to make a gentler version? Did it have some inventory in dodgy casks that it needed to move before it took a turn for the worse? Will my reset expectations learn to enjoy its subtleties, assuming some wait to be discovered? I suspect not.