Lagavulin 12 Year (2015 Special Release)

It's irresistible to compare this to Lagavulin's flagship 16 year offering; however, rather than a younger sibling, this is more akin to a cousin. Yes, it features the smokiness of the 16, but it lacks the incredible richness, some of which is made up for with the cask strength bottling. Don't get me wrong...it's still a very fine whisky, but those four years impart a lot of maturity and refinement. Unless you have money to blow, why pay $50 more than the 16 costs, when it's darn near perfection? Well, I didn't...I'll happily accept this birthday gift. If you really like this whisky, but want to spend half as much, I'd recommend trying the Laphroaig Quarter Cask, which lacks a lot of the more astringent aspects of Laphroaig but is otherwise quite similar to the Lagavulin 12.