The Islay Odyssey 2015 One Lagavulin

February 12, 2015

The Islay Odyssey 2015
Bringing rare whiskies back to their birthplace to open them.

One Lagavulin

I know, only one whisky today, but it’s one of the ‘seminal’ ones. And I've always liked these cryptic Da-Vinci-like codes on the label. And we needed a short rest.

Lagavulin 1979 (43%, OB, Distiller’s Edition, lgv. 4/463, 1l, +/-1997)

Angus’ Lagavulin 1979 (43%, OB, Distiller’s Edition, lgv. 4/463, 1l, +/-1997)

With Angus. The first and most legendary of all ‘finished’ Lagavulins. And possibly of all finished malt whiskies. I remember having tried it – and loved it – during an other extravagant Tour of Islay back in 2005. Colour: amber. Nose: a lot of chocolate, black tobacco, dried porcinis, chocolate/orange, then old vermouth, with this bitter, spicy, herbal kind of profile, then cordite, gunpowder, old sweaty guitar strings (says Angus, who’s a guitarist), and a little smoky bacon as well as a few drops of orange bitters.

Mouth: big, heavy delivery, very smoky, with seashore bonfire, smoked seafood, a little medicine, ash, mercurochrome, bitter oranges, touches of cumin and cloves, something dry and waxy… Really big mouth feel, very engaging, the whole being bigger than expected. Salty chocolate with bits of oranges. Finish: quite long, ashy and oily, wood ashes and an elegant mix of different oils. A fading rubbery saltiness. The oranges turn into pink grapefruits (says sudden co-taster Diego). Medium length. Comments: one of those whiskies that can change quite a lot depending on the other whiskies you’ve had just before, but it’s a great, great one for sure. A lot of pleasure in this. If only all finishings would be like this! SGP:536 – 92 points.

Check the index of all Lagavulin I've tasted so far