SolanaRoots
Lagavulin 16 Year
Single Malt — Islay, Scotland
Reviewed
February 16, 2018 (edited December 30, 2019)
Perhaps the most classic of all classic scotch whiskys. If you could only grab one widely known bottle to define a scotch, would this be it? If not, I’m guessing it’s one of the final horses in the race. Peat-heavy smokey Beechnut chewing tobacco meets fruity smoothness.
Rating: Hordes of whisky drinkers probably claim the Distiller score is too low. Since this is not exactly my preferred profile, I’d personally lean high 80s. I love it in small doses on predominantly rare occasions.
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Great list @The_Rev - a consensus top 5 “classic scotch” list is really impossible if you ran a poll, but I’d probably wager on Lagavulin 16 appearing the most frequently
This is definitely a quintessential bottle, and I'd say that you can't really claim to understand what scotch whisky is without having tried it. I'm the world's worst at picking one of anything, but if I had a Top 5 Most Genre Defining Single Malt Scotches, I'd include this one, along with (maybe) Old Pulteney 12, Talisker 10, Balblair '99 Vintage, and Glenfarclas 15. Maybe.
Ha, great info @Rick_M
The people have spoken! :)
THE HIGHEST USER RATED SPIRITS IN 2017 In 2017 users rated spirits hundreds of thousands of times. Out of all of those ratings across thousands of different spirits, a few received more attention than any others. Criteria: We tallied all of the user ratings in 2017 to determine the five most rated spirits in each category, then selected the spirit with the highest average rating. Distiller Awards 2017: Highest User Rated Spirits Highest User Rated Whisk(e)y in 2017: Lagavulin 16 Year | 2017 Average User Rating: 4.42
@SolanaRoots - my epitome of scotch list would have to contain Macallan 12 (or now the Classic Cut), Ardbeg Corryvreckan, Talisker 10, Glenlivet Nadurra (any variation) and the Laphroaig Lore. You take those 5 scotches and use them to introduce an outsider to whisky. Awhile back I would’ve replaced the Nadurra with A’Bunadh, but the last few newer batches I’ve had don’t make the cut. Some people would argue for a Springbank, but I haven’t had one from their core range yet that absolutely blows me away (that I can currently recall, that is).
Yeah @LeeEvolved & @PBMichiganWolverine - Definitely not in my faves either. But one of the bottles I’d consider the epitome of Scotch (to the wider all whisk(e)y drinking masses). Agree with @Generously_Paul that Talisker 10 would be in the running too. What else (with, say, a $100 cap)?
Yeah, me too...that 12 yr annual release is really good, as well the annual DE. But to each his/her individual taste buds
I don’t rank it as one of my favorites of all time, either. I personally think that the best thing that comes out of Lagavulin is the annual 12 year, cask strength. Lagavulin is in its prime when it’s hotter IMO.
I’d say the one classic that could probably take that title is Talisker 10. Both are great but I think the Talisker is better balanced.
Yes.