Lagavulin 8 Year

Pours a straw yellow color and leaves a lacy collar around the middle of the glass. The nose is first a mild, boggy peat. It's not that smoky, but it's quite muddy. Toffee and sugary caramel, which softens up into a Werther's Original butterscotch scent. This is all followed by a briny sea salt and black pepper. Just a touch of flowery perfume: the nose is just terrific and very fragrant. The very first taste is rock salt on the front of the tongue: big, chunky rocks that I could spread on my steps in a Syracuse winter. The second flavor is a smoky bonfire or extinguished matches, with a black pepper chaser. The smokiness really takes over, permeating all the other flavors. There is chewing tobacco that pairs nicely with the earthy peat/soil. The finish is bonfire smoke and ashy black pepper. Vanilla tobacco leaves and the accompanying peat/soil. There definitely is some soft plastic, like a Band-aid. There is a citrus fruit element that seems like pear or green apple. There is an ashy charcoal component that lingers and mingles nicely with the peat.

This has become my favorite "value" go to peated whiskey