LAGAVULIN 37 YEAR OLD

Am i dreaming? Is this true? Have i really tasted a Lagavulin 37 year old single malt? Well my friends, luckily, i have. Lagavulin just might be not only the king of Islay (controversial statement, i know), but it can also be considered into the top 3 best distilleries of the world im my humble opinion. (Try to deny it, lol). I have never even seen this bottle before, i did not knew it existed. But i found one at Usquabae bar in Edinburgh. I couldn't avoid tasting it, i had to have it. It was distilled in 1976 and bottled in 2013 at a lovely 51%abv. Matured in refill american oak and european oak casks. Only 1868 were ever made. A true rarity. On the nose, it was incredible. Smokey cigarrettes, ham, sherry. The smokiness on the nose is so great, specially when it turns into this glazed pork note after a few seconds. Salty and waxy; prunes, lemon and ashtray aromas. Fish and lulo fruit peel. It smells delicious; sherried cherries. Oh my god the palate is spectacular. A big chocolate note mixed with hazelnut and vanilla. Salt, red chilli and plants. Very herbal after holding it some seconds in the palate. Wet grass and smoke. On the second sip, the sherry and red fruits appeared.  The sherriness, the fruitiness, the saltiness, everything is so rounded; mud and earthiness. Wow, just wow. Aftertaste is the perfect ending for a perfect dram. Smokey, salty, cigarrettes and ashes. Gunpowder. It can only be described as an epic Lagavulin finish. I wonder how it is so smokey after 37 long years. Overall, you might believe that i can get overwhelmed just by discovering this bottle, and that is why i gave it a perfect score, but that is not true. I had it after just tasting a Talisker 1953 which is even more legendary and this one was superior. This might be the perfect Lagavulin, and that is a powerful statement on its own. My score for it is 100 over 100 and this will definitively be on my 2023's top ten whiskies tasted.

16th century English poet, Thomas Tusser, once wrote, “A fool and his money are soon parted.” Apparently, what was true 500 years ago still applies today, as I’m here to say #358 of 1,868 is mine. It makes a nice museum piece. :)