I recently managed to pick up a bottle of the Diageo 2021 Talisker 8. Excellent liquid that exceeded my expectations. I was a little sad that I wasn’t able to get my hands on the Lagavulin 12 though. I have heard nothing but excellent things about it. So, managing to get my hands on a 30 ml sample I was very excited to get to try this after all. N: Fresh, vibrant, aromatic, and whistle clean. There is no notion that 56.7% ABV lurks in the glass, I am breathing this in deeply with no burn. Beautifully balanced. baked lemon and briny salt-spray soaked old barrels. There is soft vanilla, a waxiness, and restrained, gentle, peaty-iodine. If no one has heard from me in a while after posting this review then don’t worry, for I have fallen face first into this whisky and drowned. It’s not my favourite nose ever, but it has me in its beguiling grasp anyway. I want more. (Pro tip: don’t ever wash out the empty glass. Charcoal embers and ash are just another element hiding away to discover.) P: An oil slick that sticks and clings to the palate, like an old salty sea captain tarring his decks. Preserved lemon is tart and bright, salt is that from a tray of oysters. Honeyed burnt ends right off the charcoals. Thick warming smoke with leather and pepper in its depths. Toffee cream rounds and softens, before a slightly drying wood or maybe its the smoke, perhaps its barrel char, dries things back slightly. There are endless layers here, I can barely keep up, and at this point I don’t want to. Let this wash me away, I am here for the ride. F: Medium and dry. Pepper, a gentle medicinal background, and the smoke from seawater splashing onto the beach side fire. Water is like a cheat code unlocking all the good stuff with no effort. The nose gains weight and fullness with more lemon upfront. The palate thickens gaining creamy depths with new sweetness and more vanilla. But the drying smoke and oily brine go nowhere. The finish lightens and slightly lengthens with a tiny sweetness. The layers upon layers upon layers of flavour and texture are incredible. How something this big can be equally delicate and precise is just a masterstroke. I am not an artist but I’m reminded of sitting in Les Salles Rouges in the Louvre many years ago. A little overwhelmed, I stood looking up at the enormous canvases. I particularly remember “The Coronation of Napoleon”. That painting is about 6 x 10 m. It is huge, dominating, and with so much depth and complexity you barely know where to look. Yet, when you do look there are details upon details upon yet more hidden details. At some point, you just have to stop, step back and just appreciate the grandeur. Take it all in. And be amazed. I have to say, I personally prefer the T8 counterpart from the 2021 special release series. But, I think this L12 is objectively better. I cannot nit pick a fault. I can’t say a negative thing about it. Ive come back to this review on the 22/09/2023 thanks to a sample from @cascode. I’ve removed my former “fault” of saying it doesn’t capture my imagination. It absolutely does as I have been taken back to Les Sallee Rouges and the sheer impressiveness of this liquid deserves the full 5 stars. 
[Islay is all about peat. I was going to picture this pour with a lump of peat rich lignite. But that felt cheap and easy. Instead, this whisky on the rocks is brought to you by a fossiliferous sandstone from the Carboniferous (~320-300 Ma) of Fife nr. Edingburgh, Scotland. The fossils here are of the leaves from a Sigilaria lycopod, keeping a tenuous peat theme going!] Distiller whisky taste #104