Lagavulin Lagavulin 16 Year Old NV 750ml

Lagavulin 16: This middle-aged islay is not as peat-forward and saline as some of its younger brothers. You may find maple candy, meat, and spice among the expected smoke, with a slight bit of rubber. For all its strength, it paired well with the delicate Fonseca. The cigar cut through the peat and brought on sweetness, while the whisky bumped up the homey, chimney-smoke notes on the cigar. The panel was at odds with the Don Carlos pairing, two of us praising the toastiness that each participant achieved, with another taster feeling that cigar and malt got in each other’s way. The sweet charms of the Padron took the edge off the Lagavulin’s peatiness and brought on a sublime mix of nuts and chocolate. The surprise may have been that the whisky paired best with the ballsy Cohiba, never butting heads with each other’s smoke content. The cigar rooted out the whisky’s sweetness and got rounder for its troubles. Preferred Pairings: Fonseca and Cohiba

Lagavulin is a classic example of how smoke isn’t a blunt instrument that covers everything in a fog, but an element that works with all the flavors produced in distillation and maturation. Lagavulin isn’t ‘smoky,’ its peat moves into a weird territory of Lapsang Souchong tea and pipe tobacco, fishboxes and kippers. It smells of laurel and light cereal, but is always sweet. The palate shows more creosote, with hints of kelp and a little touch of iodine. Complex.

Soy sauce, olive brine, peat, honey, oloroso Sherry, brewer’s yeast, bread dough, barley malt and cigar smoke in the bouquet. The flavor that magically includes the innate intense peatiness of Islay malts and the masterly employment of oak barrels phase defines “classy Islay.” Concludes sweetly, without sacrificing the tangy, astringent peatiness that is inherent. Gorgeous.