Lagavulin 2005 Distillers Edition (Bottled 2020)

I’m a fan of the standard 16yr and have been waiting to try this one, which is supposed to be a finished version of the 16. However this one says “Distilled 2005 and Bottled 2020”, which adds up to 15 years, not 16 like it normally states. Oh well, 2020 was a strange year anyway. The nose is very Lagavulin as expected, nutty, black pepper, a little salty smoked meat, some iodine, and then wonderful round dark cooked fruit and/or raisin. The palate is sweet and very oily with tons of raisin, and plum with also a lot of iodine/peat smoke. I also get the nuttiness and black pepper from the nose as well as some jalapeño and pickled ginger. The finish is long with lingering iodine and sweet cooked stone fruit and some sweet vanilla buried in there. This fades into a nice campfire smoke note that just hangs out in the background for a while. Wow, this is very good. Of course I had to do a side-by-side comparison with the Lagavulin 16. The lag 16 is also wonderful, but is way brighter (in color and taste) and a little more rough around the edges when directly comparing it to the Distiller’s Edition. The DE is just thicker, darker and rounded with some dark fruit notes, which are to be expected given the finishing it went through. Both are great, but I am definitely leaning towards the DE over the standard 16. And for me the DE was about $30 cheaper, not sure why that would be. Maybe I just lucked out.

Lagavulin's version of An Oa. Smooth, sweet, with a distinct Pedro Ximenez influence.